Thanks to all who responded to my query of a couple of weeks ago re: unfundable
proposals.  I confess it was a somewhat ingenuous question, prompted by
frustration.  I had helped a faculty member with a proposal to a foundation,
good idea and okay proposal I thought, we sent it off, he got a fast response
saying no thanks, doesn't really meet the foundation's guidelines.  The
response made him angry, he wrote a nasty letter to the foundation, caused hard
feelings all around.  (I was away when the response came.  I've since spoken to
the foundation, rest assured.)

In thinking about this event, I wondered (of course) what I could have done
differently.  In thinking about that, I decided to ask colleagues on the net
how they handled even more dramatic cases--proposals which appear to us to be
unfundable.

Here's what folks suggested:

--Work with the proposer to make it better.

--Find more appropriate sources of funding.

--Have the PI call the program officer to try out the idea.

--Find a local person who has reviewed for the proposed funding agency, ask
him/her to read it.

--Share the proposal with the proposer's chair or dean, ask them for their
critiques.

--Submit it, get reader's reviews, and rewrite accordingly.

--Be honest, but kind, tactful, positive.

--Rewrite it.

As several of you noted, most of these options depend on having good lead
time--a luxury we frequently don't have, especially with the bad proposals.
And a couple of you pointed out that sometimes the proposals we think are
terrible actually get funded, so we should be cautious about refusing to send
them out.

We do most of the above, depending on the circumstances.  (Including rewriting,
which is apparently a touchy subject in some offices, several respondents said
emphatically that they DON'T rewrite.  We even write proposals, I guess that
makes us unusual.)  Nonetheless, sometimes bad things happen, hence my
frustration and my query.

Again, thanks to those who responded.

Bill Campbell
Director, Grants & Research
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
xxxxxx@uwrf.edu