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Conference Travel Award

GSG is proud to present this one-of-a-kind conference travel award to the graduate students of University of Cincinnati. The GSG Conference Travel Award is provided to financially assist graduate students in presenting their research at an academic conference, and/or attending a research conference to develop their professional skills. If you have questions, please reach out to GSG Treasurer (gsg-treasurer@mail.uc.edu).

Before You Begin

  • Add <noreply@jotform.com> to your Safe Senders list in Outlook. This will prevent travel-related communication from going to your Junk Email folder.
  • If you are a CECH student, please find application instructions and award link on this CECH webpage (https://cech.uc.edu/current-students/student-services-center0/student-organizations/gsa/travel-fund-process.html).
  • Carefully read ALL instructions before applying.
  • Note that most up-to-date information is only available on this GSG webpage. GSG is not responsible for any misinformation elsewhere.

General Guidelines

Instructions on applying for this award is divided into two major parts: Before Travel and After Travel. Review both parts completely in order to make a successful submission.

Award Amounts

Students are eligible to apply for the following maximum amounts of award in one fiscal year (July 1st to June 30th). You can either apply for the whole amount once or divide amongst multiple conferences. The higher amount is maximum for an FY, no matter how many or what type of conferences you attend.

Note the following maximum eligible award amounts for non-CEAS graduate students:

  • $800 for presenters.
  • $300 for non-presenters.

Note the following maximum eligible award amounts for CEAS graduate students:

  • $1400 for presenters ($800 from GSG and $600 from CEAS).
  • $500 for non-presenters ($300 from GSG and $200 from CEAS).

Application Approvers

You will need two approvers to sign off on your travel award application before GSG can process it. These two approvers are:

  1. Your Research Advisor or Department Head (You can find contact information about your Department at Graduate College Contacts webpage).
  2. Your GSA President or Treasurer (You can find contact information about your GSA officers on our webpage: GSG Member groups).

Review eligibility and ineligibility criteria for this award below.

To be eligible to apply for this award, you

  • Must be a graduate student matriculated within the University of Cincinnati (UC).
  • Must have earned 12 credit hours before the start of conference.
  • Must be enrolled at least part-time (1 credit hour). For summer conferences, must be enrolled (at least 1 credit hour) for the prior spring semester, if summer enrollment is not required.
  • Must not be graduated for more than two weeks before the start of the conference.
  • Must be a registered member of GSG and your affiliated GSA on GetInvolvedUC (campuslink.uc.edu).
  • Presenters: Must be presenting original research either via a paper/poster/art presentation, or a keynote/talk. If multiple authors are attending the conference to present the same work, only one author (higher in author order) will be considered as presenter for this award. All other others will be considered non-presenters. 
  • Non-Presenters: Must be attending a purely research-related academic conference where others present their original research.

You are ineligible to apply for this award if

  • Your conference travel is supported by departmental and/or an advisor’s external grants (including but not limited to federal, state and local government or industry grants awarded externally to UC), or if you are traveling to a conference as an employee of such grants.
  • You are attending summer schools, career workshops/panels, networking workshop, auditions, career fairs, job interviews, or any non-research related conferences. No exceptions.

Before Travel

Fill out this Travel Authorization Form at least one week before traveling. This is a university-required document that needs to be approved/signed by GSG Treasurer before traveling. When you complete filling the form, further instructions will be sent to you via email.

  • Travel Authorization (TA) form is required if you are staying at least one night away from UC for academic purpose. When in doubt, it’s always a good idea to fill it out before traveling.
  • For international travel, forward the signed TA form immediately to UC International and check if need anything else.
  • If you cannot produce a signed TA form while submitting your award application, your application will be denied by default. 
  • Only accepted TA form is the one approved by GSG, since GSG is the sponsoring organization for this award. Other TA forms signed by your advisor or department business admin will not be accepted.
  • Please note that an approved TA form doesn’t guarantee travel award. It is just a UC-required document to have your academic travel on record.
  • Also note that this is not the travel award application, rather just a part of it.

After Travel

After you have traveled and have all documents with you (including the GSG approved pre-travel TA form), it is time to apply for the GSG Conference Travel Award. The application includes clear and explicit instructions where needed. If you are still not sure about something, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the GSG Treasurer (gsg-treasurer@mail.uc.edu).

IMPORTANT: UC requires any travel-related reimbursement applications be submitted within 14 days of last day of travel. Apply for the award accordingly, any applications not following this UC deadline will be denied by default.

Required Documents

GSG Conference Travel Award application requires following documents in the order (1-8) prescribed below. These details are also available on the application. Failure to produce all documents will result in unnecessary delay of award, if not desk-rejection.

You will need to upload a single PDF (under 5 MB) containing following documents. All documents must be clearly legible. Pay special attention to required highlights/annotations. After highlighting something, make sure underlying text is legible. Documents must be in the below order:

  • All receipts must be in English, no exceptions. UC does not reimburse expenses presented in foreign languages. 
  • If expense is in a foreign currency, make sure abbreviation/symbol (e.g., USD/$) is mentioned.
  • Highlight your name (if available), date of transaction, amount, last four digits of credit/debit card used (if applicable).
  • This could be a monthly statement from your card company, or individual charge proofs that can be downloaded. When using the whole statement, highlight the expense(s) in question, and please redact everything else. 
  • This document should clearly mention your name, date of transaction, amount, last four digits of credit/debit card that appeared in the receipt(s).
  • If you have a shared expense with a colleague, include a Peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer proof, such as Zelle/Venmo/Paypal transfer.
  • Term bills can be found on your Catalyst account.
  • If conference was during summer and you aren't required to register during summer term, upload the prior spring term bill. 
  • Unofficial records can be generated on your Catalyst account.
  • Highlight the number of credits earned to-date.
  • Such an email is usually sent by organizers after you are research gets picked for presentation.
  • If you are a non-presenter, include a confirmation/welcome email from organizers.
  • Include the title page and page(s) from the program brochure with your name on it. Highlight your name and presentation title. DO NOT include the whole program brochure.
  • As an option, you can include certificate of attendance from the conference, or a picture of yourselves presenting.
  • You should have this document approved pre-travel from GSG (GSG Treasurer). If you do not have a pre-travel approved TA form from GSG, your award application will be denied by default.
  • This document is required by CEAS for the additional financial support they provide. This could be filled and signed after travel. CEAS Travel Request form can be found here.

Ineligible Expenses

UC, and hence GSG, cannot reimburse following expenses:

  1. Food/Per Diem when you are traveling on conferences
  2. Airline Baggage Fees
  3. Membership Fees/Dues of the organizers' professional bodies

For a full list of expense policies, please visit this UC webpage on Travel Expense Policy.

After Submission

You will receive a confirmation email (with a submission PDF) within 30 minutes after you submit your form. Along with this, both of your approvers will also receive emails with unique approval links. Please ask them to review and approve your application as soon as they can.

It would help if they add <noreply@jotform.com> to Safe Senders list as well. If not, they might find approval emails in their Junk Email folder. GSG will automatically send your approvers reminder emails every 3 days to help you out.

For CEAS students: Your approved application will be forwarded to CEAS and you will be notified of the same. No further action will be required by you at the time and CEAS will reach out to you in case there are further questions.

Reimbursement Time

After you receive both signatures and if all required documents are in order, it will typically take 3 weeks for the award funds to show up in your account.

For CEAS students: Reimbursement time for you will typically be 6 weeks, as approval and processing from further offices is required.

 

Terms And Conditions

When you submit your application, you agree to below terms and conditions by signing your full legal name.

  1. No awards are guaranteed. Final approval depends on budgetary restrictions, and the decision solely lies with GSG.
  2. Falsifying data on application will lead to denial of application.
  3. Failure to produce pre-travel GSG approved TA form will lead to denial of application.
  4. Failure to submit travel application within 14 days of last day of travel will lead to denial of application.