Abstract. Given n ∈ N and τ > 1/n, let S n (τ ) denote the classical set of τ -approximable points in R n , which consists of x ∈ R n that lie within distance q −τ −1 from the lattice (1/q)Z n for infinitely many q ∈ N. In pioneering work, Kleinbock and Margulis showed that for any non-degenerate submanifold M of R n and any τ > 1/n almost all points on M are not τ -approximable. Numerous subsequent papers have been geared towards strengthening this result through investigating the Hausdorff measure and dimension of the associated null set M ∩ S n (τ ). In this paper we suggest a new approach based on the Mass Transference Principle of Beresnevich and Velani [A mass transference principle and the Duffin-Schaeffer conjecture for Hausdorff measures. Ann. of Math. (2) 164(3) (2006), 971-992], which enables us to find a sharp lower bound for dim M ∩ S n (τ ) for any C 2 submanifold M of R n and any τ satisfying 1/n τ < 1/m. Here m is the codimension of M. We also show that the condition on τ is best possible and extend the result to general approximating functions. §1. Introduction. Throughout ψ : N → R + will denote a monotonic function that will be referred to as an approximating function, n ∈ N and S n (ψ) will be the set of ψ-approximable points y ∈ R n , that is points y = (y 1 , . . . , y n )