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
>>
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