Your application is free. Their time isn’t. Try some made-up numbers. One application takes eight hours. Value that time at £20 an hour and it’s £160. Ten applications? £1,600 worth of someone’s time. Those are assumptions, not a measured average. And that time comes from somewhere. Paid work. Delivery. Somebody’s evening. A rejected bid doesn’t give it back. Writing a bid can sharpen a project. Some hours earn their place. The problem is the hours your process asks for that never change your decision. Someone else carries that cost, and they carry it whether they win or not. If you run a funding process, measure the effort it asks for. Cut repeated questions. Match the effort you ask for to the size of the grant. Consider paying for substantial development work you specifically request. You still need enough to choose responsibly, so test which information actually changes your decision. When you ask people to respect the funding, respect the effort they put into reaching it. On...