Does anyone know what the Change Proposal process is like in DOORS NextGen? Will it be revamped with industrial strength capabilities, or will it be a simple utility with basic functionality as found in DOORS 9?

It depends on the time frame we are talking about. This is very much on the radar, but it's not in plan for the first release.

Starting in DOORS Next Generation Beta 1 (December 2011) the Jazz work item capabilities are included in the DOORS Next Generation license, however DOORS Next Gen is not yet able to delegate to the work item system for requirements change management. This is not in plan for the first release.

In later releases, at a minimum I expect we'll see the work item system (and specifically the process defined in the work item system) driving the requirements change process in DOORS Next Generation. This is similar to the way a Change Management system can drive change requests in DOORS 9 today (with Rational Change, Team Concert, or ClearQuest -- and potentially any OSLC-CM provider). This is beyond the basic Change Proposal System built into DOORS 9.

For some years the DOORS product team has been taking feedback on the current change control process as implemented in DOORS itself and between DOORS 9 and a CM system, and there are a bunch of good ideas for improvements. I'm hopeful that DOORS Next Generation will deliver more than the minimum described above in future releases.