Agencies may think of SO's and AOR's as people who are somehow highly place individuals who review and put a "signature" on an application on behalf of the institution. The systems, however, need more than just signers. An institution can have a number of AOR's for Grants.gov so they can keep track of submissions and check on status. Currently near the top of my top 10 (or so) problems with Grants.gov is that only the actual AOR who submits an application gets the tracking messages and can check out the status in the Grants.gov server. Perhaps quite a few people should to be able to check on submission status. Thus an EBIZ POC can give AOR status to many people in the Grants office. All of these people, however, might share only a couple of "institutional" logons and passwords. Thus all of those people would get the submission messages and be able to check on status. So while 12-15 people could do AOR things, there might be only 3-4 registered institutional AOR's accounts. These people carry out their assigned University roles when dealing with the external systems. Some people are authorized to approve applications, others to send them, others to check on them, yet all need to be AOR's. Moreover, what constitutes institutional approval? A university may have internal business processes that allow for a proposal to be "approved." Submitting an application to Grants.gov is not sufficient to meet most university internal business processes for approval. Indeed, submitting to Grants.gov could be looked upon as just "mailing" the already institutionally approved application. Even Grants.gov staff refer to the system as just a "post office." Thus an individual who approves an application on behalf of an institution need not be the person who puts the application in the mail -- push the g.g submit button. Regarding multiple SO's, this might be again to allow for various grant management functions and checking of problems. Should only the person allowed to approve submissions be the only one who can check on the status of an electronic submission? Until NIH comes up with a workable Organization Hierarchy system, then people doing a variety of tasks in the eRA Commons must all be designated as an SO. Hopefully a functional hierarchy system is forthcoming soon. I am an "SO" at Michigan, but our business rules do not allow me to verify an application or reject it as will be the function after May 10. I follow UM rules but do a variety of SO tasks with the Commons. In conclusion, I would say that universities tend to have their own business processes with people's roles well defined. Agency proposal submission and management systems must be fitted into the universities' processes, not the other way around. The crucial aspect of the relationship between the sponsor and the university is that someone, with authority to do so, has approved an application on behalf of the organization for submission. And there is a written record of that approval. Bob xxxxxx@umich.edu On Apr 26, 2006, at 2:19 PM, Charlie Hathaway wrote: I know we have discussed this (almost to death) but hearing that an institution has 11 or 16 Signing Officials for dealing with a single federal agency makes me want to revise this "Who can/should be an AOR" question. I'm not talking about PIs submitting as AORs. Rather, I'm curious how others are streamlining or decentralizing the process. NIH more less equates SO and AOR in terms of authority status. Does everyone else? So, if you have say 10 SOs, are they all also AORs? What are the reasons for having 10 SOs? For safety in terms of fall back coverage? To allow different colleges/divisions/departments (labs?) some autonomy? Grants.gov says "An AOR submits a grant on behalf of a company, organization, institution, or government. AORs have the authority to sign grant applications and the required certifications and/or assurances that are necessary to fulfill the requirements of the application process. Is this the criterion that most are using? Or are you being more flexible, relying on the discretion of the EBiz POC in granting AOR privileges? Charlie At 01:24 PM 4/26/2006, you wrote: > Cornell has 16 and all show up. > > At 10:54 AM 4/26/2006, you wrote: >> Does anyone have multiple SO's in Commons and been able to have >> them all show up in the Institution Profile? We have 2 SO's. >> Both are set up as SO's, but only the first one set up shows in >> the Institution Profile. The Commons help desk has said to make >> sure the second person was set up by the first and has employment >> info filled out in his personal profile. Both of these things >> have been done and only the first SO shows up. >> >> Can anyone provide guidance? >> >> Thanks, >> Colleen >> >> Colleen Corcoran >> Director of Grants and Contracts >> Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc. >> Riverview Center >> 150 Broadway Suite 301 >> Menands, NY 12204 >> (518) 486-4244 >> (518) 474-6995 fax >> >> IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail is meant only for the use of the >> intended >> recipient. It may contain confidential information which is legally >> privileged or otherwise protected by law. If you received this e-mail >> in error or from someone who was not authorized to send it to you, >> you >> are strictly prohibited from reviewing, using, disseminating, >> distributing or copying the e-mail. PLEASE NOTIFY US IMMEDIATELY >> OF THE >> ERROR BY RETURN E-MAIL AND DELETE THIS MESSAGE FROM YOUR SYSTEM. >> Thank >> you for your cooperation. > > ====================================================================== > Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are > available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on > "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== ====================================================================== I nstructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ======================================================================
