We don't have a prior approval process, but I do encourage faculty to
submit draft budgets to me as early as possible.   As noted in another
reply, most institutional concerns are obvious from the budget so it's
an effective way of making sure that the proper people are aware of
what's going on.     I also will take email "signatures" for our
internal endorsement form in order to get a proposal out on time --
picking up the actual signature later.

Our ability to be flexible is probably due to our small operation -- I
only process about 50 proposals a year.   We don't mail the proposals
and we allow faculty to keep revising the proposal text after the
official sign-offs (but not the budget, budget justification, or any
statements about commitments) so faculty have been fairly good at
getting proposals into the signature process about a week before the
deadline (our stated policy is two weeks but we can usually do it in two
days).     I always check the copy of the submitted proposal to make
sure that it's the same budget that we approved.

Frances Vinal Farnsworth
Coordinator of Sponsored Research
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE
Forest Hall
Middlebury, VT 05753
802-443-5889
xxxxxx@middlebury.edu
fax: 802-443-2081

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Thompson [SMTP:xxxxxx@MAILGATE.ARMSTRONG.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, May 04, 1998 12:44 PM
> To:   xxxxxx@hrinet.org
> Subject:      internal approvals
>
> We're having 'the usual' problems with proposals coming in the day
> they need to be mailed with any number of things wrong with them.  Our
> policy has always been to bend over backwards to accommodate but
> sometimes it's impossible.
> It's been proposed that we begin an approval process for proposals
> BEFORE they are written, rather than afterwards -- the idea being that
> obtaining approval to write a proposal at least means that the R&SP
> office, the budget folks, the department heads etc. all know in
> advance, can get involved and and head off some of the problems before
> it's too late.  Does anyone else have an up-front approval process? If
> so, does it work? How does it work?  What are the pitfalls?
> Thanks!
> ------------------
> Alexandra Thompson
> Armstrong Atlantic State University
> 11935 Abercorn Ext
> Savannah  GA  31419-1997
> (912) 921-5803 voice
> (912) 921-2335 fax
> email:  xxxxxx@mailgate.armstrong.edu