How do I politely decline a research grant? I am working on a research project that the university and my PI talked me into applying for a research grant through the university, and I got it. I'm happy that they considered my part of the project worth the award, but now I have concerns and want to decline it, mainly because of the presentation requirement. 


The presentation will take a lot more time and effort than I thought it would. 
The project involves things that I know nothing about. I know my piece, but it's my understanding that I need to present on the entire project. 
It will be an all day thing and I can honestly make more money at my job that day than the grant is worth. 


I'm thrilled they awarded me the grant, and I want to stay on for the project, but I want to politely decline the money. 

Edit I didn't really want to apply for the grant, but my PI wanted me to and the stipend I'll get directly offsets a small bill from the university, so I applied. I found out that I get the money after I present my work at the end of next semester, long after I paid the bill. Nowhere in the paperwork did it mention the delay, otherwise I would not have applied and just worked on the project for free.
How do I politely decline a research grant?


Let's be clear here. Based on your account I'm getting the impression that, with a reasonably high level of confidence, there is no way for you to "politely" decline the grant. The very action of declining will reflect poorly on you and show you to be an unreliable and difficult to work with person, and is likely to upset your PI and the funding agency who went to the trouble to evaluate your application. So, it's not about the "how". It's the action of declining that is by its nature impolite.

You may feel this is unfair. You may feel that you were given inaccurate information at the time of submitting the grant that led you to make a decision you now regret. You may very well be right on both of those points. In an ideal world you would simply explain what happened and everyone would agree that it makes sense for you to decline the grant. However, in the world we actually live in, I'd say accept it, do the work, use it as a learning experience and move on. And congratulations for getting the grant, it obviously says good things about you and if you do a good job has potential to benefit you in the future in many ways other than the measly stipend.