I believe  who signs off on an internal routing sheet or even a proposal
for that matter is an individual institutional decision.  Each institutions
needs to assess what level of review they wish to have and go with that.  It
may be even come down to what type of proposal.  For example, you may
require dean's signature on new or renewal proposals, but not on
noncompeting continuations.  It may also be that the dean of one
college/school wants to see everything while the dean of another only wants
to see a specific group of proposals.  And this is a decision that should
not be made by us as research administrators, but by senior administration
and the signatories themselves.  We should be prepared to make recommendations.

Electronic proposal submission gives us the opportunity to develop
electronic routing forms and to assess our current systems of approvals.  I
think we would all be wise to take advantage of the opportunity and to
question who signs what when.  But I don't think there is only one answer
that fits all institutions.

From south Texas, where it is heating up quickly (is it the weather or the
June 1 deadline???)
Jane

Jane A. Youngers
Director
Office of Grants Management
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
7703 Floyd Curl Drive
San Antonio TX  78284
voice:  210-567-2333
fax: 210-567-2344
email:  xxxxxx@uthscsa.edu