Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A clinical trial is placed on hold while an unexpected adverse event is reviewed by the IRB; recruitment resumes after IRB clearance.
- Is an instance
A laboratory pauses experiments for two weeks while a critical microscope is repaired.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A sponsor-imposed suspension is distinct from a project-team hold.
- Not an instance
Project termination is permanent, not a hold.
Editorial commentary
A project hold differs from a sponsor-initiated suspension in that it is typically internal to the project’s own management — initiated by the research team, the institution, or a regulatory body such as an IRB, rather than imposed externally by the funder as a compliance sanction. Holds may be planned (for example during a scheduled recruitment freeze) or unplanned (a critical instrument fails and replacement parts are delayed, or an adverse event triggers a safety review).
How a hold is documented and closed out
A hold is recorded in the project’s own records, typically with a start date, a stated reason, and the conditions required to lift it, and may need to be disclosed in the next scheduled progress or interim report to the sponsor even where the sponsor was not the one who imposed it. Lifting a hold usually requires documented sign-off from whichever party’s decision or review triggered it — an IRB clearance letter for an ethics-triggered hold, a repair completion record for an equipment-triggered hold — rather than simply resuming activity once the immediate blocker appears resolved.
Downstream effects
A long or repeated hold rarely stays cost-neutral: it commonly forces revised project milestones, schedule slippage relative to the original workplan, the need for a no-cost extension to complete the remaining work, or a visible dip in the award’s burn rate that a financial dashboard will flag as underspend relative to the linear baseline. A pattern of repeated holds across a portfolio is often the first signal a research office uses to trigger closer project-management review.
Worked example
A clinical trial is placed on hold by the study team after an unexpected adverse event; recruitment pauses while the IRB reviews the event, and the hold is lifted only once the IRB issues written clearance to resume — the pause and its resolution are both documented in the trial’s regulatory file.
Counter-example
An FDA clinical hold or a sponsor-issued stop-work order is a suspension, not a project hold in this sense — it is imposed by an external party with regulatory or contractual authority over the award, not a pause the project team or institution initiates and controls itself.
References
- Institutional project-management guidance; clinical-trial hold practices, including IRB-triggered holds.
Also known as
Project pause · Activity hold · Internal hold
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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