Training Grants - A Need for greater professionalism by independent grant-aiding bodies?

Recent efforts to attract funding for a UMIST-sponsored general purpose business game project raise worrying doubts in the treatment of research proposals by an independent grant-aiding body. Though this experience may well be atypical, there is concern that the problem may be a significant one, particularly with regard to funds from non-governmental sources. If this is the case, the implications for research in this country given the ongoing reductions in total grant funding (evidenced for example by the increasingly limited amounts available through the research councils) are more grave than previously imagined.