In this communication we present our response to the recent comment of A. Engel regarding our paper on FIB- fabricated Nb nanowires (see Vol. 20 (2009) Pag. 465302). After further analysis and additional experimental evidence, we conclude that our in
terpretation of the experimental results in light of QPS theory is still valid when compared with the alternative proximity-based model as proposed by A. Engel.
