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Writing a Rejection Letter (with Samples)

Sarah Green Carmichael

A quick no is better than a long maybe.

I have a friend who appraises antiques — assigning a dollar value to the old Chinese vase your grandmother used for storing pencils, telling you how much those silver knickknacks from Aunt Fern are worth. He says the hardest part of his job, the part he dreads the most, is telling people that their treasure is worthless.

Sarah Green Carmichael is a former executive editor at Harvard Business Review. skgreen

A Guide to Writing Professional Rejection Letters

Table of Contents

It’s never easy letting someone down. But you might have to reject a business proposal because of several reasons. Maybe their proposal didn’t meet your company’s needs or failed to comply with requirements. Whichever the case, you want to break it to them gently. If you don’t know how to start, it can help to look at an RFP proposal rejection letter sample . In this article, we’ll share some great samples you can refer to when writing your letter. We’ll also share a step-by-step guide to help you deliver the news professionally and kindly.

What is an RFP Rejection Letter?

An RFP rejection letter is a document sent to vendors who respond to the requests for proposals (RFPs) sent out by a business . It informs the vendor that their proposal has been declined and details why their offer was rejected. While delivering difficult news, it should still show appreciation for the time and effort put into submitting the proposal. A concise but empathetic RFP rejection letter can help maintain goodwill between vendors and businesses.

Types of RFP Rejection Letters

Noncompliance : This type of rejection letter is sent when an applicant fails to adhere to the requirements or terms outlined in the RFP. The letter should explain why the proposal was rejected and offer advice on improving future proposals.
Price Negotiation : If a vendor’s pricing proposal is too high, this type of RFP rejection letter is sent to the vendor. It informs them they were not selected due to their higher price quote. The letter may suggest that the vendor re-submit a new bid with more competitive prices.
Rescinding a Request : When an organization cancels its plans after issuing an RFP, it will notify all applicants through this letter. The letter should include the reason why the organization changed its mind.
Notice of Award : This type of RFP rejection letter communicates to unsuccessful bidders that their proposal was rejected. It then informs them that another bidder has been selected for the project. The letter should include which party won the award and provide contact information if further questions arise.

How to Write Professional and Kind Rejection Letters

Writing a rejection letter is much less complicated than others let it out to be. You want to be straightforward but also use a friendly tone. Follow these steps to get started:

Start by thanking them for their proposal.

The vendor made an effort to make a proposal for you, so it’s only polite to thank them. Address them either by their name or greet their business as a whole. You can also give positive feedback if you like anything about the proposal.

Be clear when rejecting their offer.

Don’t drag your letter on too long before giving them the bad news. Your recipients will thank you for not wasting their time on a lengthy letter. Be clear and gentle while giving them the news, don’t leave room for interpretation.

Let them know the reason why.

You’re not required to give them a reason for rejecting the proposal, but it can help them better understand and accept the decision. It will also provide them with something to work on to improve future proposals. You can go the more general route if you don’t want to get into the specifics. You could say, “Our needs have changed, and we decided to work on a different proposal.”

End your letter on a professional note.

Just as you started your letter positively, you want to end it that way. I wish them luck in their future endeavors. If you’re open to working with them in the future, mention that too. Close your letter with a signature. You can also include your contact information to entertain further questions about the proposal.

Proposal Rejection Letter Sample

Dear [Name], Thank you for your proposal and the time and effort you invested in presenting it. Unfortunately, after careful deliberation, we regret to inform you that we cannot accept it now. I understand that this is a difficult decision to hear. We did not take this lightly and considered all aspects of your offer before choosing. Ultimately, we found that our needs do not perfectly align with your proposed services, so we cannot move forward together. Once again, thank you for considering us, and I wish you luck with your endeavors. Please feel free to reach out if you need further clarification. Yours Sincerely, [Sender]

Dear [Name], We want to thank you for the proposal you submitted, and it was clear that much time and effort went into creating it. Unfortunately, after careful consideration, we have decided not to accept your proposal. Although your proposal had several appealing points and showed potential, it did not meet the company’s needs. I wish you all the best in finding success in future endeavors, and I hope you remain optimistic about achieving your goals. Thank you again for submitting your proposal. Warmly, [Sender]

Dear [Recipient], Thank you for the generous proposal that you sent in. After due consideration and research, we regret to inform you that the project has been awarded to someone else. While your proposal was great, it did not fit our requirements. We appreciate your willingness to put forth a great effort in providing us with an excellent proposal. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors and remain committed to working with businesses like yours in the future. Yours Sincerely, [Name]

Final Words

Writing rejection letters isn’t all that complicated. Just remember to be straightforward and find the balance between professional and nice. Hopefully, this article’s proposal rejection letter sample has given you a clear idea of how to get started. If you ever find yourself stuck on writing your letter, you can always turn to AI writing tools like the INK AI Assistant. INK can write anything for you, from blogs, and essays, to rejection letters. This way, you don’t have to stress too much about how to break the news to them.

A Guide to Writing Professional Rejection Letters

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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Transforming Grant Rejection Letter into Future Success

Reviewed by:

February 6, 2022

Last Updated:

January 29, 2024

So it happened. The hours you put into your grant application, the agony of waiting for a decision, the hopes you had hinged on starting a new program all came down to the mailed letter or the short email explanation:

Your grant application has not been selected.

In the process of applying for grants, even the most seasoned nonprofits and grant writers must inevitably come to terms with rejection. But don’t hang your head or give up!

In this article, we’ll cover how to respond to grant rejection letters—from following up with a thank you (yes, a thank you) to identifying key takeaways and applying them to your future grant applications to staying dedicated to your grant pursuits.

Let’s get started!

10 Best Lessons from 10 Grant Writing Experts

How to Respond to a Grant Rejection Letter‍?

Receiving a grant rejection letter is unavoidable, but it can also be emotionally painful and discouraging.

If you receive a grant rejection letter, it’s always helpful to honor your disappointment before moving on . Often, we hurry through the emotional part of our work and hastily pursue the next opportunity. However, writing grants takes time and effort, and it’s okay to feel let down when the outcome of the opportunity does not turn out as planned.

These following steps can help you process through your disappointment:

Allow yourself to feel sad or frustrated.
Talk to your supervisor, coworker, or another grant writing colleague about it.
Try not to get stuck in the negative feelings of the outcome for too long.
Remember: one rejection is just one rejection, and professional resources reveal that only between 10-20 percent of all grant applications get approved ( Check out our article for more grant writing stats )

While a well-crafted and thoughtful proposal certainly yields a greater chance of acceptance, even polished applications are often denied for reasons that have nothing to do with the application itself.

After processing these initial feelings and commiserating with coworkers, it’s important to follow-up with a response to the rejection letter. Keep reading for tips on how to craft a response that’s succinct, gracious, and ushers in the opportunity to gain more information about why you were rejected.

What to Do If You Receive a Grant Rejection Letter?

There are many reasons why you might receive a grant proposal rejection letter . However, no matter the reason, there are a few things you should do in response:

Acknowledge Emotions

Rejection is a part of life, but that doesn’t make getting a funding grant rejection letter any less disappointing and frustrating.

It is easy for someone to tell you to “not take it personally” after your grant is rejected, but that doesn’t make it any less painful. Just remember one thing: the grantmaker rejected your proposal, not you.

Like we mentioned earlier, grant rejection is inevitable at some point—so you’re not alone!

Here are some tips to help keep your emotions in check after you receive a grant application rejection letter:

Don’t take the rejection personally.
Focus on what you did well in the grant proposal.
Remember that grantmakers simply cannot allocate funding to everyone.
Talk to your colleagues, friends, and family about your frustrations.

By first acknowledging your emotions, you can be in a better mindset to move on. Then you can focus your energy on the next funding opportunity.

Inform Key Stakeholders

Once you receive a grant rejection letter, it’s important to inform key stakeholders at your organization. This might include the head of the fundraising department, your team, and even the Executive Director .

Don’t be afraid to be transparent with them about the rejection—they should be understanding. It can be especially helpful to come to them with explanations for why you were rejected and how you will apply that feedback moving forward (more on that below).

Review Feedback From the Rejection

One of the most important steps in receiving a grant rejection is to review feedback from the grantmaker.

If you did not receive detailed feedback, or any feedback at all, you should contact the funder and respectfully request feedback on why your grant proposal was rejected.

Reach out to the grantmaker either via email or by phone, thank them for the opportunity to apply for the grant, and then ask if they would be willing to meet with you to review the feedback on your proposal.

Some questions you can ask them during the meeting include the following:

How many proposals did you receive for the award?
What specifically disqualified my proposal from the award?
Is there specific feedback I can use to strengthen my proposal?
Can I re-submit a proposal in the future? If yes, when?

Use the feedback shared to better identify the weaknesses of your grant proposal . That way, you can avoid the same missteps with funding opportunities in the future.

If the feedback you receive is incomplete, you can use the Freedom of Information Act to request copies of a complete list of the reviewer’s comments and even how they scored your proposal, if available.

Capture Learnings

Once you’ve reviewed all of the grantmaker’s feedback, you can use it as a learning tool for future grant proposals.

You should make a detailed list of everything that you could have done better in the proposal based on the funder’s feedback. That way, you have a quick reference tool to use if you ever re-apply for this grant or with any future funding opportunity.

Some nonprofits use Excel or Google Notes to keep track of funder-specific feedback, and we also offer grant tracking tools where you can easily store your funder notes for later use.

Seek External Opinions

Not only should you seek feedback and opinions from the grantmakers, but also from external sources. This could include feedback from your peers, advisors, and any experts in grant writing.

Having an expert who is outside of your nonprofit organization review the rejected grant proposal could give you an outside perspective and help you identify areas that need to be improved.

Refine Your Proposal

You should now be equipped with what you need to refine your grant proposal. Whether this means simply revising your narrative or completing an entire overhaul of the content, you should review the feedback and apply what you’ve learned.

Among other things, we suggest you review the following:

Any areas that were said to be unclear or vague.
Specific feedback about making your proposal stronger or more aligned with the funder’s goals and objectives.
Questions that either were not entirely answered or did not answer the specific needs of the grant.
Any noted weaknesses in the proposal.
Grammatical and writing errors!!

You can check out this ultimate guide to grant proposals to help you refine and strengthen your proposal.

You can also review successful applications , either from the grant you missed out on or similar projects and programs. Request a copy of the winning proposal from the grant funder or visit federal sites that publish their winning grant proposals (private funders are not required to release this information).

Take note of what made them stand out and apply these learnings to your refined proposal.

Plan for Reapplication

After receiving a grant rejection, make sure to mark your calendar for the next reapplication date!

Don’t forget to check whether you are allowed to resubmit a grant proposal in the next funding cycle. Some grantmakers will even invite you to reapply at a later date in their rejection letter!

Receiving a grant rejection letter is not the end of the grant funding process. Try reapplying once you are armed with the information needed to improve your grant proposal and make any changes necessary for success.

Explore Alternative Funding Opportunities

While receiving a grant rejection is always disappointing, it’s important to remember that there are thousands of funding opportunities out there for you to apply to next!

Signing up for a grants database like Instrumentl is a great way to find new grants that align with your nonprofit’s mission and funding needs!

Instrumentl organizes grants by focus area and location to help you find funding opportunities that best fit your organization to increase your chances of success.

Maintain a Relationship With the Funder

Receiving a grant rejection letter does not have to be the end of your relationship with the funder.

You should make sure to send a thank you letter to show your appreciation for them considering your proposal. Then, you can maintain communication by putting them on an email list or even inviting them to upcoming events at your organization.

That way, the funder can get a sense of the good your nonprofit does for the community, and you will be prepared to resubmit your grant application when the next funding cycle opens up.

Click to find the best grants for your nonprofit from 12,000+ active opportunities.

Search 150+ subcategories

Grant Letter Rejection Response Sample

After receiving a grant rejection, it’s important to respond to the funder with a letter of your own.

Overall, a well-crafted response should accomplish two goals: thanking the organization and requesting information as to why the grant application was rejected.

Some grantmaking organizations will even be available for a debrief meeting to discuss why the application was declined and offer suggestions to make a future application stronger.

Make sure to keep the response succinct and straightforward. It should be just a few sentences. The response is not a place to launch into a compelling rebuttal about why the funder should change their decision. Make sure the tone is respectful and appreciative. Be gracious and grateful for their consideration.

Below is an example of a sample email response to a grant rejection letter :

Learning how to respond to a grant rejection letter is a skill that successful grant writers will grudgingly develop. However, you can learn how to capture some takeaways from the process and apply them to future applications moving forward. Keep reading for more info on how to go about using this knowledge in your next steps.

For more reading on this specific topic, check out our article on Sample Grant Rejection Letters and What to Do .

Can You Change a Funder's Mind About Your Grant Proposal?

Right from the get-go, there are a few tips you can apply to up your chances of creating a better application in the future. The following five tips cover some of the basic, yet easily overlooked, factors that will improve your outcomes.

1. Check grammar, punctuation, and formatting.

Simple, I know, right? But you would be surprised to see how many people in their rush to finish by the deadline forget to spell check or make copy and paste errors, leaving a great idea packaged in a sloppy application. As grant applications become more and more competitive, the details indeed matter.

2. Make sure you have answered the application questions.

Another seemingly basic point. Almost too basic! But many proposals fail to answer the basic questions on the application in the space allotted, even with expert writers. Consider the questions thoughtfully and make sure your narrative fully answers all of their parts.

For example, a section may state:

Describe your project and its impact on the community in the space below . (Maximum 500 words).

You may have written a very eloquent description of the project for 450 words and then only used 50 words to describe its impact. Or even worse, you didn’t describe its impact at all! Be sure that your narrative matches the application’s request for information and that you don’t short your descriptions or explanations by including unnecessary information.

3. Make sure you have provided a detailed Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

The grant application should at some point include each of these elements. These are basic concepts of a project description or, in a general operations proposal, elements of day-to-day operations.

Even if the grantmaking foundation is local, do not assume that the reviewer knows anything about your organization’s mission, history, or programs. Write each application as if the reviewer knows nothing about your nonprofit.

When answering questions, include the titles of and numbers of staff, the mission statement, service area, population served, reason for existence, rationale for programs, and vision for the future. Be succinct, yet cover all these basics so that the grant reviewer is not left with any hanging questions about the structure and purpose of your nonprofit or its proposed project.

For example, if your project description started off by stating that your organization intends to provide food to homebound individuals (the what), make sure that you include the necessary supporting information. In the description or subsequent sections, reflect on if you have included the why (demonstrated need), the how (the mode of delivery), the when (days/times per week), and the who (staff or volunteers) .

4. Describe partnerships and/or supporters.

Grant reviewers love to hear about existing or proposed partnerships. Be sure to include information about other funders who are invested in your project or organization. Include community partners with whom you are working on a shared goal. This gives reviewers increased assurance and demonstrates your organization’s collaborative capacity.

5. Include community input and outreach efforts.

It is always best to have community-led projects and to include peer advice within programs. Nonprofits are designed to serve community needs, and thus, should always include input from the population the program or organization hopes to serve.

Consider these questions:

Do you adequately tell the story of why your organization began or how you got an idea for a proposed project?
Does your narrative explain the community's need and response?
Does your organization have any data from public outreach events or forums where residents provided input?
Does your organization have a youth, elder, or resident advisory board?
If so, describe this data and/ or your nonprofit’s processes for engagement.

5 Actionable Ways to Improve Your Grant Proposal After a Rejection

Simple, I know, right?

But you would be surprised to see how many people in their rush to finish by the deadline forget to spell check or make copy and paste errors, leaving a great idea packaged in a sloppy application. As grant applications become more and more competitive, the details indeed matter.

Another seemingly basic point. Almost too basic! But many proposals fail to answer the basic questions on the application in the space allotted , even with expert writers. Consider the questions thoughtfully and make sure your narrative fully answers all of their parts.

For example, a section may state:

Describe your project and its impact on the community in the space below . (Maximum 500 words).

The grant application should at some point include each of these elements. These are basic concepts of a project description or, in a general operations proposal, elements of day-to-day operations.

When answering questions, include:

The titles of and numbers of your staff
Your mission statement
Your service area
Your population served
Your reason for existence
Your rationale for programs
Your vision for the future

Be succinct, yet cover all these basics so that the grant reviewer is not left with any hanging questions about the structure and purpose of your nonprofit or its proposed project.

In the description or subsequent sections, reflect on if you have included the why (demonstrated need), the how (the mode of delivery), the when (days/times per week), and the who (staff or volunteers) .

Grant reviewers love to hear about existing or proposed partnerships.

Be sure to include information about other funders who are invested in your project or organization. Include community partners with whom you are working on a shared goal. This gives reviewers increased assurance and demonstrates your organization’s collaborative capacity.

Consider these questions:

How to Prioritize Funders More Effectively?

Now that we’ve explained how to respond to grant rejection letters, we will conclude with a step-by-step guide for prioritizing potential funders quickly and strategically.

Understand Your Organization's Needs

If you don’t understand your own organization’s needs, you won’t be able to determine if they align with the overall mission of the funding organization. The more aligned your mission is with the mission of the funder, the better chance you’ll have at winning a grant .

If you do not understand your own organization’s needs and priorities, you’ll end up wasting your time applying for grants you probably will not get, as well as wasting the time of the funder.

Research Funders' Mission and Values

As noted above, it is essential that you also research the funders’ mission and values to ensure there is a fit.

Most funding announcements will clearly state the mission and values of the funding organization right away. So, the first thing you will want to review is the overall mission of the organization to make sure your proposal meets that funding criteria.

Instrumentl also provides comprehensive funder profiles that you can look through to learn more about a specific grantmaker.

Evaluate Past Funding Patterns

You should also research what types of nonprofit organizations a funder has worked with in the past. This should help you determine whether you have a good chance of winning a particular grant.

Some websites congratulate their grant winners, while others give links to the actual winning proposals. By evaluating the wording and patterns of these winning proposals, you can better evaluate your own chances of winning a grant bid.

You can also use Instrumentl’s Advanced Funder Insights to evaluate funder profiles so you don’t have to comb through the information yourself. Instead, our data will show you where funders have awarded grants in the past, how much they’ve given, and their overall giving trends.

Determine the Size and Scope of Grants

Determining the actual size and scope of grants can also help you save time from applying for grants you simply don’t have the resources to achieve.

Grant announcements almost always include the size and scope of the funding being offered, as well as eligibility information.

By taking the time to review the size and scope of the grant itself, you can better decide if this funding opportunity is even worth pursuing for your nonprofit.

Assess Application Complexity

Do you even have the time to complete the application correctly?

Grant proposals are not written overnight, so you will need to assess whether the application itself is too complex to be completed correctly in your given period of time.

Consider the Relationship Potential

When a funder announces a grant opportunity, they are looking to begin a partnership with the winning nonprofit organization. Don’t just look at this funding opportunity as dollar signs; you will want to consider the long-term relationship between your organization and theirs.

You can also check to see if anyone at your organization—employees, board members, volunteers—has a connection to that funder.

Seek Feedback from Peer Organizations

Another reason you should make sure you have enough time to complete your grant proposal is so that you can seek feedback from other peer organizations.

This could include other nonprofits that have successfully received grants, agencies similar to the funding organization, or even recommendations from members of your board.

Utilize Grant Management Tools

Instrumentl’s robust grant management tools can help you stay on top of different grant opportunities all in one centralized location that your whole team can access.

For example, you can use our Grant Tracker to store notes on specific funders, keep track of deadlines, and plan out your proposal-writing process.

We will even send you automatic reminders if any of your saved grants have a change in deadline.

Continuously Review and Adjust

Continuously review and adjust your grant proposals.

In the end, your proposal needs to flow logically and maintain a consistent structure. This can only be done by continuously making sure your proposal meets every requirement in the grant announcement and adjusting is as needed.

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Wrapping Things Up: Responding to Grant Rejection Letters Effectively

As a grant writer, you’ll win some and lose some (and if statistics are correct, over time, even the best will likely lose more than win). Even after writing a strong proposal, it’s never a bad idea to prepare yourself for the possibility of a rejection letter.

When faced with the rejection of a grant application, acknowledge the rejection, express thanks for the opportunity, and welcome any additional information you can use to create more compelling applications in the future.

The best way to rally from a grant rejection response is to seek out a new funding opportunity and apply what you have learned in the process. For more info on how to locate your next grant opportunity, check out our best grant research tools post here .

Instrumentl team

Instrumentl is the all-in-one grant management tool for nonprofits and consultants who want to find and win more grants without the stress of juggling grant work through disparate tools and sticky notes.

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These days, it feels like Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere. We spoke to four industry experts to learn how they are—or are not—using AI to support their grant-seeking efforts.

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Writing A Research Proposal

8 common (and costly) mistakes to avoid 🤦.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) & David Phair (PhD) . Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2021

At Grad Coach, we review a lot of research proposals , including dissertation proposals and thesis proposals. Some are pretty good, while others are, well, not fantastic. Sadly, many students only approach us after their proposal has been rejected , meaning they’ve wasted a lot of time and effort.

We’ll look at 8 common mistakes and issues we see cropping up in research proposals so that you can craft your proposal with confidence and maximise the chances of it being approved.

Dissertation and thesis research proposal mistakes

Overview: 8 Research Proposal Killers

The research topic is too broad (or just poorly articulated).
The research aims, objectives and questions don’t align .
The research topic is not well justified .
The study has a weak theoretical foundation .
The research design is not well articulated well enough.
Poor writing and sloppy presentation.
Poor project planning and risk management.
Not following the university’s specific criteria .

#1: The research topic is too broad.

One of the most common issues we see in dissertation and thesis proposals is that the research topic is simply too broad . In other words, the focus of the research is not ringfenced tightly enough (or just not defined clearly enough), resulting in a proposal that has an unclear direction or attempts to take on too much.

For example, a research project that aims to “investigate trust in the workplace” would be considered very broad. This topic has no specific focus and leaves many questions unanswered, for example:

What type(s) of trust?
Between whom?
Within what types of workplaces?
Within what industry or industries?

As a general rule of thumb, you should aim for a fairly narrow focus when you craft your research topic. Doing this will allow you to go deep and investigate the topic in-depth , which is what the markers want to see. Quality beats quantity – or rather, depth beats breadth – when it comes to defining and refining your research topic.

A related problem is that oftentimes, students have a more refined topic within their mind, but they don’t articulate it well in their proposal. This often results in the proposal being rejected because the topic is perceived as being too broad. In other words, it’s important to ensure you not only have a clear, sharp focus for your research, but that you communicate that well in your dissertation or thesis proposal. Make sure that you address the who , what , were and when, so that your topic is well defined.

Let’s look at an example.

Sticking with the topic I mentioned earlier, a more refined and well-articulated research aim could be something along the lines of:

“To investigate the factors that cultivate organisational trust (i.e. a customer trusting an organisation) within the UK life insurance industry.”

As you can see, this is a lot more specific and ringfences the topic into a more manageable scope . So, when it comes to your research topic, remember to keep it tight .

In your proposal, make sure that you address the who, what, where and when, so that your topic is well-defined.

#2: The research aims, objectives and questions don’t align.

Another common issue that we see with weaker research proposals is misalignment between the research aims and objectives , as well as with the research questions . Sometimes all three are misaligned , and sometimes there’s only one misfit. Whatever the case, it’s a problem that can lead to proposal rejection, as these three elements need to link together tightly.

Let’s look at an example of a misaligned trio.

Research Aim:

To identify factors that cultivate organisational trust in British insurance brokers.

Research Objectives:

To measure organisational trust levels across different demographic groups within the UK.

To investigate the causes of differences in organisational trust levels between groups.

Research Question:

What factors influence organisational trust between customers and insurance brokers within the UK?

As you can see, the research aim and research question are reasonably aligned (they are both focused on the factors that cultivate trust). However, the research objectives are misaligned, as they focus on measuring trust levels across different groups, rather than identifying what factors stimulate trust. This will result in a study that’s pulling in different directions – not good.

A related issue we see is that students don’t really understand the difference between research aims (the broader goal), research objectives (how you’ll achieve that goal) and research questions (the specific questions you’ll answer within your study). So, when you’re preparing your proposal, make sure that you clearly understand how these differ and make sure they’re all tightly aligned with each other.

Free Webinar: How To Write A Research Proposal

#3: The research topic is not well justified.

A good research topic – in other words, a good set of research aims, research objectives and research questions – needs to be well justified to convince your university to approve your research. Poor justification of the research topic is a common reason for proposals to be rejected.

So, how do you justify your research?

For a research topic to be well justified, you need to demonstrate both originality and importance .

Originality means that your proposed research is novel , or at least that it’s novel within its context (for example, within a specific country or industry). While the extent of this novelty will vary depending on your institution, programme and level of study (e.g. Masters vs Doctorate), your research will always need to have some level of originality. In other words, you can’t research something that’s been researched ad nauseam before.

Simply put, your research needs to emerge from a gap in the existing literature . To do this, you need to figure out what’s missing from the current body of knowledge (by undertaking a review of the literature) and carve out your own research to fill that gap. We explain this process in more detail here .

Importance is the second factor. Just because a topic is unique doesn’t mean it’s important . You need to be able to explain what the benefits of undertaking your proposed research would be. Who would benefit? How would they benefit? How could the newly developed knowledge be used in the world, whether in academia or industry?

So, when you’re writing up your research proposal, make sure that you clearly articulate both the originality and importance of your proposed research, or you’ll risk submitting an unconvincing proposal.

You have to justify every choice in your dissertation defence

#4: The study has a weak theoretical foundation.

As I mentioned in the previous point, your research topic needs to emerge from the existing research . In other words, your research needs to fill a clear gap in the literature – something that hasn’t been adequately researched, or that lacks research in a specific context.

To convince your university that your topic will fill a gap in the research, your proposal needs to have a strong theoretical foundation . In other words, you need to show that you’ve done the necessary reading and are familiar with the existing research. To do this, you need to provide an integrated summary of the existing research and highlight (very clearly) the theoretical gap that exists.

Some common signs of a weak theoretical foundation that we’ve encountered include:

A general lack of sources and a reliance on personal opinion and anecdotes, rather than academic literature.
Failing to acknowledge and discuss landmark studies and key literature in the topic area.
Relying heavily on low-quality sources , such as blog posts, personal websites, opinion pieces, etc.
Relying heavily on outdated sources and not incorporating more recent research that builds on the “classics”.

While it’s generally not expected that you undertake a comprehensive literature review at the proposal stage, you do still need to justify your topic by demonstrating a need for your study (i.e. the literature gap). So, make sure that you put in the time to develop a sound understanding of the current state of knowledge in your space, and make sure that you communicate that understanding in your proposal by building your topic justification on a solid base of credible literature.

#5: The research design is not articulated well enough (or is just impractical).

Once you’ve made a strong argument regarding the value of your research (i.e., you’ve justified it), the next matter that your research proposal needs to address is the “how” – in other words, your intended research design and methodology .

A common issue we see is that students don’t provide enough detail in this section. This is often because they don’t really know exactly what they’re going to do and plan to just “figure it out later” (which is not good enough). But sometimes it’s just a case of poor articulation – in other words, they have a clear design worked out in their minds, but they haven’t put their plan to paper.

Whatever the reason, a dissertation or thesis proposal that lacks detail regarding the research design runs a major risk of being rejected. This is because universities want to see that you have a clearly defined, practical plan to achieve your research aims and objectives and answer your research questions.

At a minimum, you should provide detail regarding the following:

Research philosophy – the set of beliefs your research is based on (positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism)
Research approach – the broader method you’ll use (inductive, deductive, qualitative and quantitative)
Research strategy – how you’ll conduct the research (e.g., experimental, action, case study, etc.)
Time horizon – the number of points in time at which you’ll collect your data (e.g. cross-sectional or longitudinal)
Techniques and procedures – your intended data collection methods, data analysis techniques, sampling strategies , etc.

For more information about each of these design decisions, check out our post detailing the Research Onion.

Of course, your research design can (and most likely will) evolve along the way , but you still need a starting point. Also, your proposed research design needs to be practical, given your constraints. A brilliant design is pointless if you don’t have the resources (e.g. money, equipment, expertise, etc.) to pull it off. So, get detailed in this section of your proposal and keep it realistic to maximise your chances of approval.

Need a helping hand?

#6: Poor writing and sloppy presentation.

As with any document, poor writing and sloppy presentation can heavily detract from your research proposal, even if you tick all the other boxes. While poor writing and presentation alone probably won’t result in your proposal being rejected, it will definitely put you at a disadvantage , as it gives a negative impression regarding the overall quality of your work.

The main issues we see here are:

Directionless or scattered writing – for example, writing that jumps from one point to another with poor flow and connectivity, disjointed points, etc.
Poor argument formation – for example, a lack of premises and conclusions, disconnected conclusions and poor reasoning (you can learn more about argument development here ).
Inappropriate language – for example, using a very informal or casual tone, slang, etc).
Grammar and spelling issues, as well as inconsistent use of UK/US English.
Referencing issues – for example, a lack of references or incorrectly formatted references.
Table and figure captions – for example, a lack of captions, citations, figure and table numbers, etc.
Low-quality visuals and diagrams.

The good news is that many of these can be resolved by editing and proofreading your proposal beforehand, so it’s always a good idea to take the time to do this. It’s also a good idea to ask a friend to review your document, as you will invariably suffer from blindspots when editing your own work. If your budget allows, having your work reviewed by an academic editor will ensure you cover all bases and submit a high-quality document.

#7: Poor project planning and risk management.

While different universities will have varying requirements, there is usually a requirement (or at least an expectation) for a project plan of sorts. As I mentioned earlier, a strong research proposal needs to be practical and manageable, given your constraints. Therefore, a well-articulated project plan that considers all the practicalities (and risks) is an important part of a strong research proposal.

We generally recommend that students draw up a fairly detailed Gantt chart , detailing each major task involved in the dissertation writing process. For example, you can break it down into the various chapters ( introduction , literature review, etc.) and the key tasks involved in completing each chapter (research, planning, writing, etc). What’s most important here is to be realistic – things almost always take longer than you expect, especially if you’re a first-time researcher.

We also recommend including some sort of risk management plan . For this, you could make use of a basic risk register , listing all the potential risks you foresee, as well as your mitigation and response actions, should they occur. For example, the risk of data collection taking longer than anticipated, the risk of not getting enough survey responses , etc.

What’s most important is to demonstrate that you have thought your research through and have a clear plan of action . Of course, as with your research design, plans can (and likely will) change – and that’s okay. However, you still need to have an initial plan, and that plan needs to be realistic and manageable, or you’ll risk your proposal getting rejected.

#8: Not following the university’s specific criteria.

While research proposals are fairly generic in terms of contents and style, and tend to follow a reasonably standardised structure, each university has its nuances in terms of what they want to be included in the dissertation or thesis proposal.

Some universities want more or less detail in certain sections, some want extra sections, and some want a very specific structure and format (down to the font type and size!). So, you need to pay very close attention to whatever institution-specific criteria your university has set out.

Typically, your university will provide some sort of brief or guidance document to direct your proposal efforts, so be sure to study this document thoroughly and ask the faculty for clarity if you’re uncertain about anything. Some universities will also provide a proposal template . Pay careful attention to any specific structure they recommend as well as formatting requirements (such as font, line spacing, margin sizes, referencing format, etc.).

If your university provides an assessment criteria matrix , you’ve hit the jackpot, as that document will detail exactly what you need to achieve in each section of the proposal. Study that matrix inside out and make sure that your research proposal tightly aligns with the assessment criteria.

Recap: 8 Research Proposal Mistakes

We’ve covered a lot here – let’s recap on the 8 common mistakes that can hurt your research proposal or even get it rejected:

The research design is not articulated well enough.
Not following the university’s specific criteria.

If you have any questions about these common mistakes, leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to answer. You may also want to have a look at some examples of successful proposals here . If you’d like to get 1-on-1 help with your research proposal , book a free initial consultation with a friendly coach to discuss how we can move you forward.

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Research Proposal Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

You Might Also Like:

Thanks a lot for sharing these tips, very usefull and help me a lot, Many thanks

I just want to express my sincere gratitude for everything you guys are doing. You held my hand when I was doing my dissertation. I successfully completed it and got good marks. I just got myself reviewing this so I could help others struggling. May God bless you. May he bless you abundantly.

Thank you so much, I got it very important, and your presentation is also very attractive.

I find the text very educative. I am just preparing to start work on my PhD thesis. I must admit that I have learnt so much about how to organize myself for the task ahead of me. Thank you so much for being there to support people like me.

I found this video highly educative, it gave me a full glance at what is ahead of me – starting my Ph.D. now! Thank you for these amazing facts.

Thanks a lot for such an insightful video and explanation on Research Proposal design. I’m a beginner and pursuing my B.ed , these tips are really helpful to get a good start.

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CAREER FEATURE
18 February 2020

What to do when your grant is rejected

James Mitchell Crow 0

James Mitchell Crow is a freelance writer in Melbourne, Australia.

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

The day after she submitted a grant proposal last November, Sarah McNaughton listed all the tactics she could think of to boost her chances of success next time. “I expect to be rejected,” says McNaughton. “It is the exception to get funded, not the rule.” Publishing key papers and forging new collaborations were on her list, as was collecting preliminary data.

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Nature 578 , 477-479 (2020)

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How to write a proposal rejection letter to a vendor

Why you need the ultimate library for your rfp responses.

Issuing RFPs

Updated: Feb 8th, 2024

Breaking bad news is never fun and no one likes rejection. However, for procurement professionals, it’s part of the job. Indeed, for most RFPs and contracts, there can only be one winner. But, how do you tell a vendor they were not selected? In business, using an RFP or proposal rejection letter the best practice.

Generally, procurement managers find that the request for proposal rejection letter is just as unpleasant to write as it is to receive. However, it’s an important part of vendor relationship management and RFP process. Procurement professionals can make it easier on themselves and their unselected vendors by following a few proposal rejection best practices.

In this blog, we’ll explore what a proposal rejection letter is, why it’s important, who writes it and when to send it. In addition, I’ll offer a guide for writing a proposal rejection letter that lets suppliers down easy while maintaining your vendor relationships. Finally, you can review rejection letter examples and templates to help you write your own.

The what, why, who and when of proposal rejection.

How to write a rejection letter to a vendor proposal
Best proposal rejection letter examples and templates

If you’re ready to get started, you can download our free RFP vendor rejection letter template (.docx)

What is a proposal rejection?

A proposal rejection is the formalized notification that a request for proposal (RFP) opportunity has been awarded to another vendor.

You should communicate this update to any vendor who submitted a completed RFP response, but did not win the contract. In short, the RFP rejection letter is how you decline a vendor proposal.

Traditionally, the notice is sent in the form of a letter. However, as procurement teams embrace digital transformation, some send the update through email or a centralized RFP management system . The rejection notice may also be called a vendor rejection letter, bid rejection letter, unsuccessful bidder letter or non-award notice. No matter what you call it, it’s important to get it.

Types of RFP letters

As mentioned above, the rejection letter goes by many names. Accordingly, there are several types of rejection letters. Each one is suitable for a different scenarios.

Notice of proposal rejection for noncompliance:

Some people just can’t follow instructions. I’ve talked with many procurement managers who regularly receive proposals that don’t follow the stated RFP evaluation criteria. For example, if a vendor uses the wrong format, submits an incomplete response or doesn’t meet the requirements, their RFP response may be rejected before it’s read.

It sounds harsh, but RFPs are supposed to help you save time. So, many organizations avoid wasting time by removing flawed proposals from consideration. In this case, it can be really helpful for procurement managers to send rejection letters explaining what went wrong. You may offer the vendor an opportunity to correct the error and re-submit their proposal or simply let them know so they can put their best foot forward next time.

Unsuccessful bidder letter:

This notification is most common in the RFP process. It tells the vendor they were not selected for the contract at the conclusion of the RFP evaluation process.

Sending a proposal rejection email can create chaos in your inbox as vendors respond with questions or simply acknowledge the notice. However, RFP management software can send messages simultaneously, streamlining communications. This is the letter we’ll focus on in this blog.

To learn more about the RFP management systems, download the ebook: Measuring the value of RFP software .

Award notification:

An award notification is like publishing a notice in a newspaper. It’s essentially a bulletin that addresses all parties that submitted a proposal at once. It announces the winner and may include a few brief differentiators that influenced the decision.

Award notifications are most often used by government agencies. This process intends to ensure transparency because all bidders receive the same information.

Non-award letter:

When you find yourself in a true no-win situation and need to take a step back or change priorities, use a non-award letter to share the news with your vendors. This notice tells vendors that the RFP opportunity is no longer available.

Sometimes this means a delay, suspension or revision of the RFP. While the project may be revived in the future, a non-award letter explains that the procurement project has been suspended and if possible, offers some insight about why.

NOTE: If you’re a vendor looking for a no-bid notice or RFP rejection letter to notify a customer that you’re unable to participate in an RFP, you can download a free RFP rejection letter template (.docx).

Why formal proposal rejection is important

When you’re busy, sending an individualized unsuccessful bid notice to each vendor may seem like a waste of time. However, I’d urge you not to skip it.

Remember, responding to RFPs is an investment. Each proposal is the product of hours of work from many people. For vendors, waiting for a final decision is hard enough and not hearing back at all is frustrating. Clear communication, even when you’re delivering bad news, builds and maintains relationships, an important part of supplier relationship management. In addition to being a courtesy that builds trust, sending a request for proposal rejection letter has several benefits.

Be ready with a backup

Ideally, your strategic sourcing process will help you find the perfect, long-time partner, but it doesn’t always work out that way. When you evaluate vendors, you will inevitably discover some partners that don’t meet your expectations. Then, you’ll need to reengage the unsuccessful bidders to meet your needs.

In addition, you may need to call the RFP runners up if your business grows rapidly and your supplier is unable to keep up alone. Taking the extra step to provide a rejection letter and deliver the bad news with kindness means your supplier will likely go the extra mile for you in the future.

Professional networking

The procurement and supplier networks within your industry are probably close knit. As you work with people in various roles, you’ll find unexpected connections and build professional relationships.

The best sales people will take rejection with grace and stay casually in touch. If you’ve made a positive connection, they will likely continue to try to earn your business. However, they may also alert you to trends they’ve identified, innovations in the industry and potential savings.

Provide clarity

When undertaking procurement projects for other departments, communication can get confusing. The sales person or vendor may reach out directly to their original contact for updates and information. A proposal rejection letter offers closure on the project and allows vendors to refocus on other opportunities. When communicated in a centralized RFP management system, the notification is logged and can be audited.

Risk management

In addition to providing clarity to vendors about the outcome of the RFP, the rejection letter protects your organization from risk. The RFP process is designed to help make vendor selection more data driven, fair and objective. Accordingly, many government agencies rely heavily on the process to select vendors. A vendor rejection letter proactively provides information to help unsuccessful bidders understand why another business won the opportunity.

Who rejects vendor proposals?

So, who has the unfortunate responsibility of handling vendor rejection letters? Generally, the procurement manager for the project will communicate the RFP results to vendors. Consequently, this includes drafting and sending rejection letters and emails as well as following up with any subsequent questions.

When to send vendor rejection letters

In the final stages of the vendor selection process, you may find your inbox full of status inquiries from vendors. Naturally, you may be tempted to simply send out the results of the RFP just to give your inbox a break. However, I’d urge you to wait. As contract negotiations go on, it’s important to still have other options available. So, wait until your contract with the selected vendor is fully executed before cutting your other RFP participants loose.

How to write a rejection letter for a proposal

A vendor rejection letter only requires three key elements. Consequently, your notice will likely fit on a single page. The essential components of your letter include recognition of their participation, the RFP outcome and next steps.

Recognition of participation:

First, begin by thanking them. As I mentioned earlier, they likely spent hours collaborating on and creating the proposal. Express your gratitude for their time and participation.

Final outcome: Clearly state that they have not been selected for this opportunity. Some businesses name the winner in the proposal rejection letter, which can save time. Indeed, most sales people will follow up to request this information if you don’t provide it proactively.

Some proposal managers take this opportunity to provide specific feedback about the content of their proposal. However, this is optional and some people find it opens the door to questions that you may not be able (or want) to answer.

Next steps: Finally, if they are eligible, close the letter by inviting the vendor to participate in future RFPs. If you use vendor profiles, consider creating one to catalog their key information and allow them to provide you proactive updates as their organization changes.

Download an RFP vendor profile template (.docx).

The right way to reject a vendor: 6 things to remember

1. Provide information about why the winner was successful. How did they differentiate themselves? What sealed the deal?

2. Refer back to your RFP. When discussing the final decision, reference any relevant sections in your original RFP. For example, you may discuss the scoring criteria, required qualifications or scope of the project.

3. Customize each letter. Include specific notes about what you liked or didn’t like about their process and proposal. In addition, provide any insight about why their bid was not selected. Mills & Reeve, who specialize in procurement law, advise customizing your rejection letters saying:

“Including the same standard paragraph for each unsuccessful bidder is unlikely to meet the requirements for unsuccessful bidders to be afforded a clear understanding of the ways in which the winning bid scored more highly than their own.”

4. Offer to give more specific feedback . For RFPs with larger vendor pools it may not be realistic to include individual feedback. However, offer to provide additional information upon request via an RFP debrief. We all want to get better and your feedback will help make the vendor more competitive in the future, which eventually means better rates and service for your business.

5. Keep it professional and optimistic. Your letter should have a helpful, professional tone. While you want to provide general feedback, don’t get too lost in the nitty gritty details. Try to strike a balance between being polite and firm.

6 Wrap up with hope or closure. Would you work with this business in the future? If so, encourage the business to stay in touch. If not, simply thank them again for their time and sign off.

Request for proposal rejection letter examples and templates

Explore these RFP rejection letter examples and templates to see how other organizations deliver bad news to their suppliers.

Vendor rejection letter templates

Rfp rejection letter template (.docx).

This vendor rejection letter template covers the three required elements and offers instructions for use. It’s a great place to start when wrapping up your RFP.

Award notification letter template (Word) – The State of Maine

This simple award notification announces the winner of an RFP. Consequently, it also serves as the notice to unsuccessful bidders. The template is easily customizable to any business.

Vendor rejection letter template (Word) – USAID

Non-profit organization USAID uses this rejection letter to communicate RFP outcomes to unsuccessful bidders. It is short and to the point. It is clear, however, it doesn’t offer any specific information about why the bid was rejected.

Unsuccessful bidder letter template (Word) – Mills & Reeve

Mills & Reeve offers their clients helpful guidance about how to reject vendors in this guide . Their website states the importance of completing the RFP process with appropriate award communications with this message:

“The despatch of valid unsuccessful bidder letters, together with award letters to the successful supplier(s), represents the start of the important standstill period. As such, it is important to get this right in order to manage the legal risk of a challenge and to avoid unnecessary delay to the award of the contract.”

Proposal rejection letter examples

Notice of non-award letter — isana academy.

This letter is a good example of how to wrap up your vendor rejection if there is no winner for the RFP. From here, your organization may consider going back to the drawing board to issue a request for information (RFI) to help clarify their needs and next steps.

Rejection letter examples – Harvard Business Review

For a more casual, approachable rejection letter, check out this article from the Harvard Business Review. The article covers an array of rejection letters, but modifies them based on how close the relationship is between the buyer and vendor.

Vendor non-selection notification example: New York State Office of Cyber Security

If you’re looking for a more formal approach, check out this example from New York State. They call the document a non-selection notification, but in it you’ll find all the elements of a proposal rejection as well as references to the selection criteria and an invitation to schedule a debrief for more information.

For as long as there are RFPs, there will be winners and losers. However, maintaining relationships with vendors, even the ones you don’t select, delivers long-term benefits. A well-written vendor rejection letter conveys thanks, encourages future participation, provides valuable feedback and builds deeper connections.

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8 Email Samples for Rejecting a Business Proposal

Rejecting a business proposal by email is common in the professional world. As an organization, it’s normal to receive business proposals now and then, and upon weighing the pros and cons, you decide which proposal would be best suited for the project at hand.

An email declining a proposal is written to express disappointment that a company didn’t meet the criteria or the necessary guidelines to be awarded a project or business deal.

Writing a proper email to decline a proposal requires several things. From the right tone, words, format and several other things that will be exhausted in this article.

How to Decline a Business Proposal by Email

When writing an email declining a proposal, it should be written politely. Your aim should be to politely decline the business proposal and not to humiliate the recipient.

Include the name of the person rejecting the business proposal

This is standard practice when writing an email to decline a business proposal (or any email for that matter). It doesn’t have to be the person rejecting the business proposal, it could be the name of the organization as well.

Include the date the proposal was received and the day it was rejected

This doesn’t have to be in the same email. Before writing an email to reject a business proposal, an email acknowledging the proposal should be sent beforehand.

So, when writing an email to reject a business proposal, you don’t have to include specific dates.

NB: When writing an email to acknowledge a business proposal, you should make sure it’s written as “expressionless” as possible. This means an email acknowledging a business proposal shouldn’t give the recipient the notion that their proposal is going to be met with a favourable response.

The reason the proposal was rejected

This is extremely important when writing an email to decline a business proposal. This is because it helps the company do better. You don’t have to go deep into detail when writing this part of the email. A simple:

Is enough to convey your thoughts when writing this part of the email.

The things that can be improved upon to make the proposal better

This is optional when writing an email to reject a business proposal. If there’s something wrong with a proposal that made your company reject it, you should state this in the email. It could be anything from the time frame, the quotations, the design, the budget, etc.

Reasons for declining business proposals are unique to different businesses and different proposals.

If you’re declining a proposal but would be open to continue negotiating the terms of the proposal, including the reasons the proposal was rejected and how they could improve on it would help explain your intentions.

Providing the recipient with this information will aid them in preparing better proposals in the future.

Your company’s contact information

Your contact information should be in the email declining a business. This is to make it easier for the recipient to reach you if there’s anything they would like to discuss further or any questions or inquiries concerning your decision to reject the proposal.

Appreciate their efforts and show a willingness to work with them in the future

When declining a business proposal by email, it should always end with a note of thanks. As you decline the proposal, you should show optimism towards working with them in the future if the terms and conditions are agreeable.

Reasons for Declining a Business Proposal

Reasons for rejecting business proposals are unique to the business and the proposal. Regardless, there are some general reasons why a proposal would be declined. Some of these include:

Regardless of how good a proposal is, if it doesn’t meet certain criteria, it won’t be accepted. For a business proposal to be accepted, it has to meet the demands of the project, this includes the budget, the timeframe and other determining factors.
You don’t need the services they’re offering. Regardless of how good a proposal is, if you don’t need the services, you decline the proposal.
You don’t have the budget for it. If the budget in the proposal exceeds the proposed budget for the project, the proposal would be declined.
It simply didn’t make the cut. When proposals are submitted for a business, a manager has to go through several proposals to decide which best fits the project at hand, and the best fit is selected while other proposals are rejected.
A proposal can also be rejected if it doesn’t match the purpose of the project. If the proposal lacks parts that are crucial to the project, it will be rejected.
A proposal can also be declined if there are aspects that need to be improved upon. In this case, the proposal hasn’t been outrightly declined. This means there’s still a chance it can be worked on and if it passes the required criteria, the proposal could be accepted.

An email rejecting a business proposal should be written in a way that helps the recipient write better proposals in the future. It should point out things they can improve on for other proposals.

Sample One to Reject a Business Proposal by Email

Sample two to reject a business proposal by email, example to reject a business proposal politely, sample four to reject a business proposal by email, sample five to reject a business proposal by email, how to write rfp rejection letter example, how to decline a vendor proposal sample, how to politely decline a business request.

Writing an email to reject a proposal is unique to each business and each proposal. However, whatever reason you choose for declining a business proposal should be in the email you send to the recipient. This way, they can better optimize their proposals for the future. If you’re unable to disclose the reason for declining the proposal, also state this in your email. “We’re going to have to decline your proposal.” Should suffice.

There are samples in this article that cover reasons for declining a business proposal for different reasons.

Check out more Email Templates and Samples for Rejecting a Business Proposal

About The Author

Jim Blessed

9 Tips You Need to Write and Respond to Emails Professionally

12 Rules of Writing Emails Professionally and Effectively

How to Write Professional Emails: 7 Critical Ingredients

8 Simple Lessons for Writing Irresistible Business to Business Emails

Top Eight Recommendations on How to Handle Grant Rejection Letters

Your heart races when you see the email or snail mail from XYZ Foundation. There is a 50/50 chance that the project your organization has planned will be funded. You took the time to apply and as you read their letter about your grant application, your heart drops at these words:

"While we appreciate what your organization provides to communities in need, we regret to inform you that we are unable to provide funding for your project at this time."

Like you, I know that feeling all too well. In my 15-year career as a professional grantwriter, I've learned how to handle grant rejection letters. Why? Because everyone who has applied has received at least one rejection in his or her career. No one has a 100% success rate.

I wish I could tell you that you will receive a successful award letter for most grant applications that you submit (and wouldn’t that be exciting?), but the reality is that grants are competitive. There are 1.5 million nonprofits in the U.S. and they all have compelling cases. The silver lining of a rejection is in how you handle it.

Over the years I’ve implemented strategies with our clients to turn a rejection letter into a successful financial opportunity. The next time you receive one, I recommend these tips:

Don't take it personally . Grantmakers often reject the first request from most organizations. While it may feel like they don’t appreciate the work that you and your team are doing, it’s more likely they received an abundance of requests and simply cannot fund all of them. Ask your team to review the grant application and funder to see if it was truly the right fit for your organization. Reasons may include the simple fact that you’re located in Nevada and applied for an Arizona-based fund or your organization isn’t aligned closely enough with the foundation’s mission. If you find you are aligned, consider applying when the grant cycle opens again.
Contact the funder . Ask if they would be willing to provide insights as to why the proposal wasn’t funded. Create a script prior to the call so you can stay on point, not waste time, and gain the knowledge you need for the next application. Take copious notes and keep track of feedback so you can reference it as you develop other proposals. Also ask if you can re-apply in the next grant cycle. In the meantime, make connections at the grantmaker organization if possible; personal connections can make the funding difference.
Invite the funder to experience your program first-hand . While connections are important, it can also be impactful to see the work being done through your program. We serve 100 meals a day to low-income school age kids may not be as meaningful as meeting the kids and the staff who bring the mission it to life.
Request a copy of the reviewer’s written comments, if available . Share these comments with key players and save them in your donor database or CRM. Pertinent information such as if the mailed application was received by the deadline, if the online application was complete, if you followed directions as stated on the application, and if your organization or program is ready for seeking grants. If you’re not ready, dig deeper to learn what steps need to be taken so you can take advantage of funding opportunities in the future.
Research organizations that were funded in the cycle you applied. See what insights you can glean directly from them. For example, you may find out that this is their first time being funded but they’ve applied three times prior, or you may learn they have a longstanding relationship with the organization or key players. That knowledge is pure gold and is useful to encourage your team to build relationships and re-apply again.
Ask for another set of eyes. While it is beneficial to your program that you are intimately familiar with its mission and implementation, I recommend asking someone outside your organization to review the proposal. Schedule time to walk through their feedback with them. An outside perspective will likely identify areas where there is room for improvement, whether in the actual application (What do you do and what are you asking to be funded?) or within the organization (Are you tracking metrics within the program that the funder is requesting?).
Freshen your program narrative. Hiring a professional grantwriter like The Rayvan Group to review your proposals and offer ways to strengthen your case for support is a valuable investment. It’s probably not needed for each proposal but if you keep getting the dreaded grant rejection letter, it’s time to ask for professional assistance.
Focus on next time. Government funders and some private funders look for tenacity and will automatically reject all first-time applicants. While it may be frustrating, they’re seeking to fund projects that are long lasting, impactful, and tenacious. Take heart; you’re not the only one being rejected and you won’t be the last. Take action, learn from this grant cycle, and make changes for future funding requests.

I have had my fair share of rejection letters but the successful reward letter makes it all worthwhile. The strategies I shared above are all ways to increase funding potential.

Contact The Rayvan Group: 928-482-5919 / www.therayvangroup.com
Visit the PathFinder for additional grantwriting resources
Check out GrantStation’s webinars for more learning opportunities

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10+ Sample Proposal Rejection Letters

A rejection letter is oftentimes very tough for any of us, whether you are the bearer or receiver of such bad news. While many of us think that it is only used to reject candidates but it is also commonly used in business processes, such as tender, offering, and bidding. You may also see letter templates in word .

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Marriage Proposal

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Proposal rejection letter writing tips.

Make sure to address the company/person correctly
You must observe a polite business tone all throughout the letter
Thank them for their time and effort
Provide the reason of rejection as courteously as you can
State the possibility of working together on a project in the future

Sales Proposal Rejection Letter

Contract Proposal

It should follow the standard format for a business letter .
Always use appropriate greetings such as “Dear Mr. Joe Smith.”
Provide positive feedback, if possible
Rejection letters should be brief and straightforward but in a formal and polite manner.
There is no need to inform them of the company to whom you have awarded the project.
Keep an open door for future project opportunities
Use appropriate closing at the end of the letter such as “Sincerely” or “Yours Truly.”

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Home » Business » Free Proposal Rejection Letter (Decline Bid or Business Proposal)

Free Proposal Rejection Letter (Decline Bid or Business Proposal)

A proposal rejection letter is probably the hardest type of letter to write due to their very delicate nature. The proposal rejection letter samples we have for you here can help you with your writing, you can also straight-up use one of them if you are not comfortable with writing one from scratch.

The proposal rejection letters we are going to be talking about here and the proposal rejection letter samples we offer are strictly business-related.

In order for you to know what proposal rejection letters are, let us tell you what standard rejection letters are first. We are going to move towards proposal rejection letters afterward. You may also like a medical school recommendation letter .

Table of Contents

What is the Rejection Letter?

A rejection letter is basically documents you write to a certain person or institution in order to refuse a particular service they are offering you. It could be an application for a job vacancy, it could be an admission rejection into a college. It could also be the rejection of a certain project, bidding, or a recommendation.

Rejection letters are hard to write, the mere nature of them is unpleasant and there is no way you can sugar-coat rejection in a professional situation. And just like that, without sugar-coating anything, let us honestly say that rejection letters are not easy to write for any of us. Although there are different types and degrees of rejection letters, most of them are bearers of unpleasant news. And thus have to be written very carefully in a way that they do not mess up the situation. You should also check the career change cover letter .

But there is a positive aspect of writing rejection letters, if you properly and politely reject someone, you can easily give them hope and motivation to do better. It is better to reject someone explicitly than have them wait for an acceptance letter that they will not receive.

What is Proposal Rejection Letter?

A proposal rejection letter is something a company, a business, or a person in charge of the related field writes in order to reject the proposal of a project, or bidding, or anything of such sort.

A proposal rejection letter is typically written to tell a particular company or person offering a certain service, suggestion, bidding, or project to you, that you are unable to accept their business agreement. Like we mentioned before, doing that is a tough and unpleasant job, but informing the person or company in consideration of the bad news motivates them to do a better job the next time or proceed with other opportunities.

You could send your rejection letter through email, or you could personally send the receiver a physical letter. That is all up to what you deem appropriate. You may also see the tooth fairy certificate template .

Editable Proposal Rejection Letter

Free proposal rejection letter template, letter of regret declining a proposal offer, printable proposal rejection letter, proposal rejection letter, rejection letter for business proposal, rejection letter to vendor proposal, sample email decline a business proposal, sample letter for rejection of proposal, sample letter of rejection of business proposal.

Additional Reading: 3 Tips for Handling a Proposal Rejection ( link )

How To Writing a Proposal Rejection Letter?

The basic idea of writing a rejection letter is to deliver the news and not beat around the bush, but be as polite and grateful as possible to the receiving end. The format could be pretty simple:

Introduce yourself and your position
Offer them thanks for applying
Give them the news
Explain to them why they are being rejected
Give them hope and surety (by showing a willingness to work with them in the future).

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Thank you. payment completed., you will receive an email from us to confirm your registration, please click the link in the email to activate your account., there was error during payment, orcid profile found in public registry, download history, understanding journal rejection - and looking for the silver lining.

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Peer Review Process

No one likes getting rejection letters. Sadly, however, these are a fact of academic life; papers sent out to journals and (in particular) grant applications are more likely to be rejected than accepted (or funded), especially if you are doing what you should be doing and aiming high with initial manuscript submissions (trying to get your work published in the best possible journals ).

Submission (and rejection) advice

Thus, ‘ work down the tree ’ is the advice we always give to Early Career Researchers (ECRs):

Make a list of the best journals in your field from top-to-bottom and learn to pitch your work to the best possible one you think your paper has a decent change of getting into, then push it to the next down your list (once rejected), and so on.

It’s always well worth trying to publish your work in the top journals , while taking the time to market your research appropriately. These are skills that you can learn with the help of Charlesworth Knowledge ; learn how to maximise your research outputs, including targeting the best possible journals and driving up your impact factor (IF).

Understanding why journals reject manuscripts

More often that not initial submissions lead to rejection . Receiving rejections can feel like a setback and can often be taken very negatively, especially early in your career. However, you must develop a thick skin and also realise that such outcomes might not be what they first seem: many journals these days reject almost all the papers that they receive, including after securing sets of peer review comments. This is in part because ‘rejection rate’ factors into a journal’s IF and so publishing houses want to ensure that this is as high as possible .

Reading a reject response - for a silver lining

This means that the standard set of responses that you would normally have received from a journal after submission (‘ Accept ’, ‘ Minor revisions ’, ‘ Major revisions ’ and ‘ Reject ’) are no longer so cut and dried. Journal editors will often send a ‘rejection’ email that also includes an option to re-submit:

We would consider a revised version of this paper if you are able to take the comments of the reviewers into account.

So: read rejection letters from journals with care as they are often more akin to ‘Major revision’ letters .

Charlesworth Author Services , a trusted brand supporting the world’s leading academic publishers, institutions and authors since 1928.

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Common Reasons Grant Proposals Are Rejected

The proposal review process involves individual, human readers. This fact produces an implacable rule. What is not noticed is not funded.

Amidst the sometimes formidable stack of proposals, the document that does not catch the attention of the reader cannot compete on the more formal criteria associated with quality of design and congruence with the agency's priorities. The abstract and introduction sections of the proposal are thus very important, since they must project whatever unique or attractive elements are contained in your research question or approach.

The most common reasons for proposal rejection boil down to a surprisingly small set of simple and familiar failures:

Deadline for submission was not met.
Proposal topic was not appropriate to the funding agency to which it was submitted.
Guidelines for proposal content, format, and/or length were not followed exactly .
The proposed question, design, and method were completely traditional, with nothing that could strike a reviewer as unusual, intriguing, or clever.
The proposed area of study was not an agency priority for this year.
The proposal was not absolutely clear in describing one or more elements of the study.
The proposal was not absolutely complete in describing one or more elements of the study.
The authors review of the literature indicated they did not know the territory.
The proposed study appeared to be beyond the capacity of the authors in terms of training, experience, and available resources.
The proposed method of study was unsuited to the purpose of the research.
The budget was unrealistic in terms of estimated requirements for equipment, supplies, and personnel.
The cost of the proposed project appeared to be greater than any possible benefit to be derived from its completion.
The authors took highly partisan positions on issues, and thus became vulnerable to the prejudices of the reviewers.
The quality of writing was poor (e.g., sweeping and grandiose claims, convoluted reasoning, excessive repetitions, or unreasonable length).
The proposal contained an unreasonable number of mechanical defects that reflected carelessness and the author's unwillingness to attend to detail. The risk that the same attitude might extend to execution of the proposed study was not acceptable to the reviewers.

Because the probability of rejection for any given proposal is high, it is particularly important to be mindful of the items above in bold.

As adapted from: Locke, L.F., W.W. Spirduso, and S.J. Silverman. 1987. Proposals that Work . Second edition. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., by the University of Montana’s Office of the Vice President for Research & Creative Scholarship.

Divestment demands over Israel collide with Michigan university rejection

Thousands of students arrived at Michigan State University's Breslin Center last week to get their diplomas during commencement exercises amid the backdrop of pro-Palestinian students who demonstrated outside.

The activists demanded divestment from Israeli companies to administrators, the Board of Trustees and other leaders during one of the largest campus events when thousands of students graduated. An encampment of demonstrators was set up for three days.

The University of Michigan is preparing for a similar scenario during Saturday's graduation as tensions have erupted on campuses in Michigan and across the country where student activists and others have stood with Palestinians against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. Jewish students and leaders have counter-protested, emphasizing Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and defend itself against attack.

The aim of the protests is to pressure universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel — investments they claim are in the millions of dollars — as they did following protests against apartheid in South Africa more than three decades ago. Leaders at UM and MSU so far have stood firm against the demands while most Jewish students have objected to the tone of criticism during the Israel-Hamas war, including accusations that Israel is committing genocide.

"Through protest, disruption and education, we will force institutions of power to serve the will of the people," said Nia Hall, a UM doctoral student with the TAHRIR Coalition, which is more than 90 student organizations working for Palestinian liberation at the UM.

The student activists have zeroed in on UM and MSU's endowments, demanding that millions of dollars be pulled from investments that they say benefit Israel. University officials argue that the investments at issue are through index funds and portfolios not directly controlled by the universities.

But leaders of UM and MSU said divestment won't happen because of policies that shield the endowments from political pressures. They also acknowledged having divested from certain companies in the past, depending on the issue.

"MSU has been steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding the university’s investment portfolio from political influence," MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz wrote in a letter Friday to deans, directors and chairs, after an encampment was set up on campus.  "We have no direct investments in gun manufacturers, and we do not have direct or indirect investments in the three publicly traded civilian firearms manufacturers."

The UM has similarly stood its ground.

"We are not moving to make any divestment of any kind from the university endowment," Board of Regents Chair Sarah Hubbard said at a public meeting late last month.

In the case of Israeli and military companies, the university's indirect exposure is "less than 0.04% (one-twenty-fifth of 1%) of the endowment's market value, or less than $7 million," said UM spokeswoman Colleen Mastony.

This comes as protests that formed on campuses around the country have escalated into conflicts this week with police in riot gear and arrests. After New York City police cleared out a Columbia University hall occupied by demonstrators on Tuesday night, the latest action by police has resulted in more than 1,000 protesters getting arrested nationwide. The University of Southern California in Los Angeles canceled its main May 10 graduation.

The protests in Michigan have been peaceful, though a UM honors convocation was disrupted.

"Setting up the picket was a way for us to directly take the message to them, let them know that we are here, we are not going anywhere and this going to continue to be a problem unless they address our demands," said MSU junior Jesse Estrada White, an organizer in the MSU Hurriya Coalition, a group of more than 20 pro-Palestinian MSU organizations.

"This moment, where the institution I have called home for three years, is actively funding the genocide of Palestinian people," Estrada White said, "and I can't think of any other place that I would have rather been."

Josh May called the protests at MSU, UM and across the country “atrocious” and said he hoped the administrations would choose to be “on the right side of history.”

“These people are siding with the wrong side of history and are uneducated on the history of the conflict and funded by organizations that don’t align with our American values,” said May, who graduated from MSU after studying hospitality business and welcomed an antisemitism bill that the Republican-controlled U.S. House approved on Wednesday.

Discussing the protests

The militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that resulted in mostly civilian casualties, leading to a counterattack that has resulted in tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths and a looming hunger crisis. Jewish students and leaders have countered that more than 100 Israeli hostages are still being held by Hamas, the Hamas-provided death toll is questioned and the two sides have a complex history.

The heart of the uprising is about students who are condemning human rights violations committed by Israel against Palestinians, said Nathan Kim, a UM graduate student in the school of information.

"We are standing with Palestinians because we are human beings ourselves and we see massive scales of death and destruction targeting women and children and civilians in general and the destruction of all universities in Gaza," Kim said. "We, as students, have to speak out."

Jewish leaders and students have rejected claims of genocide, noting Israel was attacked first, but have noted that students could support Israel while not embracing all of Israel's military strategy.

"The biggest issue that we are seeing is that students who are pro-Palestine don't understand that there's a difference between supporting the state of Israel and supporting the Israeli government," said Izzie Haymann, a UM sophomore from Dallas. "You don't have to support (Israel Prime Minister) Bibi Netanyahu or the Israeli government to believe in the fact that there should be a Jewish state. Zionism is the right to have a place to be safe, a place for all of your people to be welcome. At this core of this, the Palestinian people want a homeland and the Jewish people want a homeland."

MSU explains its stance

MSU divested once from its endowment, now valued at $4 billion. It was in 1978, when MSU became the first university in the nation to divest from companies with ties to South Africa under apartheid, MSU spokesman Mark Bullion said. At the time, MSU divested from its portfolio 13 companies doing business in South Africa worth about $7 million then, Bullion said.

MSU has clarified some of its investment decisions. Guskiewicz wrote in his letter to campus that the university doesn't own an Israeli-issued security bond, referring to a $236,000 Israeli State Aid U.S. Treasury bond that MSU purchased in March 2023 before the Israel-Hamas war began. Officials said the proceeds from the bond cannot by law be used for military purposes.

"Given this context, and as the board has previously indicated, the university will not be making any divestment changes," Guskiewicz said. "Our investment decisions will continue to focus on strong financial stewardship that allows us to advance our educational and outreach mission."

UM explains its divestments

UM also divested holdings linked to South Africa and tobacco in its endowment, now valued at $17.9 billion, Mastony said.

The Board of Regents voted in 1983 to divest from companies operating in South Africa, with the exception of corporations headquartered in the state, after the Michigan Legislature approved a 1982 law requiring that public colleges and universities to remove investments from companies doing business in South Africa, she said.

In 2000, UM divested from tobacco companies, which represented less than one-quarter of 1% of the university’s then total holdings, because "tobacco was antithetical to the university’s mission of research, teaching and service, especially given the university’s world-class health care system and medical school," Mastony said.

UM also has made changes to its investment approach related to Russia over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and climate change, but those swifts were not divestments but based on financial factors, she added.

"The university's endowment, similar to other endowments, typically invests through privately managed investment funds overseen by professional fund managers," Mastony said. "These managers make a variety of portfolio investments, including investments in private companies."

For instance, she said, a venture capital fund manager might invest in 50 different companies through one of their venture funds.

"If the university has invested in that particular venture fund, the university, along with all the other investors in that venture fund, would be considered an 'indirect' investor in those 50 companies," Mastony said. "UM selects fund managers based on their overall strategy but does not actively direct or influence the managers' specific company investments. This passive investment approach is typical for institutional investors in private funds."

UM and other institutional investors are "bound by contractual confidentiality obligations regarding the private funds' investment details and performance metrics," so a university can't disclose its fund manager's individual investments, she added.

Protests present 'existential crisis'

The protest comes as some experts said the war has led to a milestone regarding support for Israel.

"This is the first time that support for Israel has been truly controversial in the U.S.," said Michael Kazin, a history professor at Georgetown University. "There has long been a pro-Palestinian movement most visible in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign. But it has never been very large or galvanized such a visible spurt of support as in the past few months."

The heart of the protests is "a longstanding sympathy for the Palestinian cause among Americans on the left — and as in the 1980s when student protestors demanded their colleges/universities divest from South Africa," Kazin added.

Other observers said the protests are more complex and personal than divestment demands of the past.

"What makes the activism and protests different since Oct. 7, since the Hamas terror attack on Israel, is the extent to which they pit student against student, faculty against faculty, alumnus against alumnus," said Dan Mogulof, an assistant vice chancellor and spokesperson at the University of California, Berkeley, where students are also protesting. "These aren't just abstract political issues. They're issues that touch people's very identity, whether it's ethnic or national or religious. So the passions and emotions and potential for conflict within the campus community is so much higher than it's been in the past."

Mogulof added that they are presenting an "existential crisis" to university leaders working to embrace free speech but foster a climate where all students feel safe and belong. The UM has drafted a policy aimed at quelling event disruptions, but it has been opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.

"Particularly for a public university, there is an inherent tension between our non-negotiable adherence to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and all that it takes to have a strong, cohesive community," Mogulof said.

After his first year in office in December, UM President Santa Ono said the impact of the war in Israel and Gaza would be the most important issue facing UM in 2024 because it didn't appear to be ending anytime soon and "there are members of our community on both sides. … hurting, who have lost loved ones on both sides."

Pro-Palestinian activists said they have been lobbying officials for years at UM and MSU. But the protests have become more aggressive, as they have at scores of universities across the country.

At UM, activists disrupted the university's 101st Honors Convocation in March as Ono was set to speak. That led the university to draft a policy proposal to halt school event disruptions, but it has not been adopted pending more discussion. UM encampment organizers said they will not leave the Diag until their demands are met.

While UM activists won't say whether they plan to demonstrate during commencement on Saturday, UM officials have noted on their graduation website that a protest may occur. They outlined that security screening will occur, and tickets are needed. Banners, flags and other things that obstruct sightlines are prohibited, and staff will respond to disruptions, beginning with warnings, officials said.

"Commencement ceremonies have been the site of free expression and peaceful protest for decades and will likely continue to be," UM's website says. "Our goal is to limit substantial disruption, ensure safety, and support a successful and celebratory event worthy of the achievements of our extraordinary graduates."

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dissertation defense studies behavioral environmental economics ravi vora

Dissertation Defense: “Studies in Behavioral Environmental Economics” Ravi Vora

Ravi Vora , PhD Candidate, University of California, Santa Barbara

Ravi uses applied and experimental methods to study how environmental policy is understood and how support evolves over time. His work is motivated by the difficulty of addressing climate change, a setting that he believes will offer fresh insights about human nature and economic interactions. In his spare time, he enjoys science writing, rock climbing, and creating visual art.

My dissertation consists of three chapters that use a behavioral economic framework to enrich our understanding of the political economy of environmental policies.

Chapter 1 explores the role of cognitive frictions in the perceived distributional impacts of externality pricing. Despite their desirable properties, carbon taxes have received very low public support. Leading explanations attribute the rejection of carbon taxes to preferences and ideology. I show that, instead, much of this rejection is due to simple mistakes voters make when reasoning about the consequences of such policies. Using laboratory experiments, I show that subjects have specific blind spots in reasoning about policies like carbon taxes, even in very simple, abstract tasks that remove scope for preferences and ideologies. Based on these findings, I introduce a new policy that is isomorphic to a leading carbon tax proposal but engineered to be robust to these cognitive frictions. In a nationally representative survey, I find that my new policy (which I call “carbon penalty and reward”) garners 30 percentage points of additional public support than the original proposal (known as “carbon fee and dividend”). Using independent cognitive measures, I show that this increase in support is concentrated in people who have difficulty reasoning about a common policy structure.

Chapter 2, which is joint work with Guglielmo Zappalà, details how exposure to environmental policy in the past shapes preferences for them. Low public support has been an obstacle to the enactment of stronger environmental policies. Yet if policies are enacted, support for them may change. Using surveys covering 38 countries around the world, we study the dynamics of environmental policies and individual preferences over time. Exploiting within-country, across birth-cohort variation in exposure to environmental policy stringency, we document that cohorts exposed to more stringent policies in the past are more supportive of environmental policies at the time of the survey, with the effect largely driven by exposure during a period of early adulthood known as the formative age window. This result even holds when evaluating exposure to a specific policy instrument, environmental taxes. Past exposure to these taxes improves support for them, but not for other environmental policies. This relationship suggests that a society's environmental policy attitudes evolve endogenously, with implications for normative frameworks used in welfare economics.

Chapter 3 evaluates how quick, inattentive decision-making systematically distorts perceptions of the effectiveness of pricing in reducing pollution externalities. When people are asked to make policy choices that affect a good's price, we traditionally assume that they accurately perceive quantities demanded conditional on price. But failures to consider substitutes and other adaptations to a permanent price shock can result, ex ante, in a perception of inelasticity and policy ineffectiveness. In past surveys, perceptions of ineffectiveness are among the main reasons that voters believe a carbon tax would fail to cut emissions unless the revenue were spent on offsetting projects. I implement an incentivized survey experiment to test whether consideration time and prompts to encourage hypothetical thinking increase subjective perception of responsiveness of demand to price. Results from this design provide suggestive evidence that consideration time and hypothetical thinking are associated with perceptions of higher demand responsiveness.

JEL Codes : H23, D91, Q52, Q58

Event Details

Join us to hear Ravi’s dissertation defense. He will be defending his dissertation, “ Studies in Behavioral Environmental Economics” To access a copy of the dissertation, you must have an active UCSB NetID and password.

Event will be held via Zoom .

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Business | Newport News green hydrogen site moving forward…

Business | Newport News green hydrogen site moving forward despite federal funding rejection for mid-Atlantic hub

A hydrogen demonstration site is still in the works at Tech Center Research Park in Newport News, despite a larger regional hydrogen hub not being selected for federal funding. (Staff file photo)

In October, the U.S. Department of Energy chose to fund seven green hydrogen hubs across the country with $7 billion from by President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law. A proposed Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub , which would have included Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., was not among the selected sites. If selected, proponents said the project would have created 9,000 new jobs across all locations and created two hydrogen production sites in Hampton Roads.

Still, work on a smaller $6.5 million hydrogen test facility and demonstration site is progressing, said Brett Malone, Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center president. The program, which will be located in the Tech Center Research Park near Jefferson Lab in Newport News, will include a fueling station and demonstration site.

The program’s development is progressing and getting more industry interest, Malone said.

“We’re pulling a more specific demonstration project together,” he said.

When asked about when the project would be operational, Malone said in an email that the research center was still confirming plans around the timeline.

Hydrogen has attracted attention as a potential replacement for fossil fuels because it burns cleanly and can be produced with renewable energy, Malone said during a green energy talk April 23 at the research center. He said the gas isn’t a be-all, end-all energy solution, but has applications in powering heavy machinery currently powered by gasoline or diesel fuel.

“We’re not going after Teslas,” Malone said, referencing the popular electric cars. “That’s not where the use of hydrogen makes the most sense.”

Dominion Energy has successfully tested blending hydrogen in natural gas pipelines, business development manager Jonathan Warren said during the panel. However, he said the cost was too much to make sense right now.

“So, it’s a great option to make natural gas plants reduce their carbon emissions, but it makes our power bills go way up,” Warren said.

Warren said that if the Biden administration had funded the hydrogen hub, it would have lowered the price of the fuel and made it more economically feasible. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen for Virginia.

All hope is not lost, Warren added. He said he believed if the price came down due to other hydrogen hubs, it might become viable for Dominion.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, [email protected]

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Dear Colleague Letter: NSF-Italian Ministry of Universities and Research Lead Agency Opportunity on Artificial Intelligence

February 20, 2024

Dear Colleague:

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Ministry of Universities and Research of the Italian Republic (MUR) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Concerning Artificial Intelligence Collaboration. The MOU provides the framework to encourage collaboration between the U.S. and Italy research communities and sets out the principles by which jointly supported activities might be developed. The MOU provides for an international collaboration arrangement whereby U.S. researchers may receive funding from NSF and Italian researchers may receive funding from MUR. Through a "Lead Agency Opportunity," NSF and MUR will allow proposers from both countries to submit a single collaborative proposal that will undergo a single review process at NSF.

This document provides guidelines for the preparation, submission, review, and award of joint NSF-MUR artificial intelligence proposals.

Collaborative research proposals will be accepted to the Small project class of the CISE Core Programs, available at https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/computer-information-science-engineering-core . Italian researchers are invited to read MUR funding rules at http://www.ricercainternazionale.miur.it/accordi/accordi-bilaterali/italia-usa.aspx . Limits for U.S. researchers on the number of proposal submissions are described in the relevant CISE Core Programs solicitation referenced.

Proposers should review the NSF CISE and MUR programs for further information on what areas of research may be eligible for support through this activity. Following the policies for the NSF and MUR programs from which funding is sought, proposals should adhere to the description of Small Projects accommodating up to $600,000 in budget on the U.S. side and up to €500,000 in budget on the Italian side, with durations up to three years. Proposers are strongly encouraged to contact cognizant Program Directors to ensure the proposal aligns with the goals and requirements of the program prior to submission.

Proposers are advised that all documents submitted to NSF or MUR may be shared by secure electronic means among the participating NSF and MUR units to implement the Lead Agency Opportunity.

Proposal Preparation and Submission

All proposals must fall within the mission and funding parameters of NSF and MUR. Proposals that do not fall within the missions of both funding organizations will not be considered.

Full Proposal Submission

The eligibility to submit a proposal follows the policies for the NSF and MUR programs respectively.

Proposers should follow all requirements outlined in this DCL as well as the guidance contained in the CISE Core Programs solicitation. The proposal should describe the research activities of both the U.S. and Italian partners.
As specified in the relevant program solicitation, proposers are to comply with the proposal preparation requirements outlined in NSF's Proposal and Award Policies and Procedure Guide (PAPPG – https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pappg ) and submit the proposal through Research.gov ( https://www.research.gov/research-web/ ) or Grants.gov ( http://grants.gov ).
By submitting, PIs and their organizations agree that NSF may share proposals, unattributed reviews and information pertaining to the review process with MUR.
Proposals submitted to the Small Project Class are accepted at anytime; however, within a week after submission to NSF CISE’s Core Program, the proposal should be submitted to MUR via the web platform https://banditransnazionali-miur.cineca.it . The submission to MUR should contain the mandatory administrative and financial information required by MUR funding rules, published on the Italian submission platform and the Ministry web site, the proposal submitted to NSF, and the proposal number issued by NSF (this information is required for matching the proposals).
The title of the proposal should start with "NSF-MUR:” after any solicitation specific title requirements.
The proposal should describe the full proposed research program, including the total U.S. and Italian resources that will be part of the project. The Project Summary and Project Description must include a description of the collaboration, including an explanation of the role(s) of the Italian collaborator(s) and an explanation of how the team will work together.
The proposal must describe the intellectual merit of the proposed research, including the value of the international collaboration, and the anticipated broader impacts of the effort.
The proposal should indicate only the U.S. expenses on the NSF Budget Form. A detailed breakdown of funding requested from MUR should be included in the proposal as a Supplementary Document. Proposals that request duplicative funding from NSF and MUR will be returned without review. The Budget Justification section of the proposal should address the full project budget (that is, both the NSF and MUR funding items).
A post-doctoral mentoring plan is not needed if funding for postdocs is requested only from MUR. Including one, however, is allowed.
Italian personnel should be listed in the Overview section of the Project Summary as "non-NSF funded collaborators." This listing is for administrative purposes and is not intended to characterize the level or value of the contribution of Italy personnel to the project. Guidance on information to provide for "non-NSF funded collaborators" is below:
Biographical Sketch – Required. The biographical information must be clearly identified as "non-NSF funded collaborators" biographical information and uploaded as a single PDF file in the Other Supplementary Documents section of the proposal. Use of a specific format is not required.
Collaborators and Other Affiliations (COA) Information – Optional but requested. The COA information should be provided through the use of the COA template, identified as "non-NSF funded collaborators" COA information, and uploaded as a PDF file in the Single Copy Documents section of the proposal.
Current and Pending Support is not required for the Italian personnel.
Results of Prior Research is not required for the Italian personnel.

Additional Documents

Proposers should provide all the documentation outlined in this DCL as well as the documents required by the CISE Core Programs solicitation.

Merit Review

Proposals under this Lead Agency Opportunity will be reviewed alongside all other unsolicited or standard research grant proposals received in the same funding round or call and will not undergo a special or separate review process. Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the NSF's merit review criteria .

Funding Decisions

NSF, as the lead agency, will use its usual internal procedures to determine whether a proposal will be awarded or declined. All potential award decisions will be discussed with MUR. The number of U.S.-Italy projects selected for funding and the total amount to be allocated will depend on the number and quality of the submitted projects and the available funding for each funding agency.

NSF will advise all proposers whether their proposal has been recommended for funding or will be declined. Proposers will receive copies of the reviewers' unattributed comments and, where applicable, a panel summary.

NSF and MUR will coordinate award timing as much as possible, but because of different funding cycles, it is possible that some projects will have delayed start dates to wait until funds become available or until all pre-award requirements are met. Wherever possible, NSF and MUR will endeavor to hold standard turnaround times for each participating agency. In exceptional circumstances outcomes could be delayed.

Should a proposal be declined for funding, proposers should refer to both NSF and MUR resubmission guidelines.

Post Award Considerations

Recipients are expected to comply with the award conditions and reporting requirements of the agency from which they receive funding.

Recipients are required to acknowledge NSF and MUR in any reports or publications arising from the grant.

NSF and MUR will consider requests for extensions using standard procedures.

All NSF and MUR requirements for data storage are applicable to investigators funded by their respective agencies.

Data Protection Considerations

Data are expected to be securely shared between NSF and MUR to enable the secure and efficient processing of full proposals for the NSF-MUR funding opportunity. Data shared may include anonymized reviews and panel summaries. NSF and MUR are committed to maintaining data confidentiality, protection, and privacy and intend to fully abide by their own applicable laws and policies concerning the sharing of data in collaborative activities.

Questions about this DCL may be directed to [email protected] .

Dilma Da Silva Assistant Director (Acting), Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering

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Dear Colleague Letter: NSF-Italian Ministry of Universities and
The eligibility to submit a proposal follows the policies for the NSF and MUR programs respectively. Proposers should follow all requirements outlined in this DCL as well as the guidance contained in the CISE Core Programs solicitation. The proposal should describe the research activities of both the U.S. and Italian partners.

Writing a Rejection Letter (with Samples)

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How to Write Professional and Kind Rejection Letters

Start by thanking them for their proposal.

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End your letter on a professional note.

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Final Words

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Maintain a Relationship With the Funder

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Writing A Research Proposal

Overview: 8 Research Proposal Killers

#1: The research topic is too broad.

#2: The research aims, objectives and questions don’t align.

#3: The research topic is not well justified.

#4: The study has a weak theoretical foundation.

#5: The research design is not articulated well enough (or is just impractical).

Need a helping hand?

#6: Poor writing and sloppy presentation.

#7: Poor project planning and risk management.

#8: Not following the university’s specific criteria.

Recap: 8 Research Proposal Mistakes

Psst… there’s more!

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