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Travel Award Request


GUIDELINES


  1. The department will make available to graduate students a Travel Award (“Award”) in the amount of $1,000 (maximum) to present research results at a scientific conference.

  2. Requests for an Award will only be considered with an accepted Abstract (oral or poster) for a scientific meeting.

  3. Students must be the presenting author.

  4. You may apply for an Award a maximum of twice, with each request being for a minimum of $250.00.

  5. All Awards are conditional on the availability of funds.

  6. At the time of the Award request, you must be in good academic standing based on Graduate School and departmental standards.

  7. At the time of the Award request, you must be a graduate student pursing a degree program and enrolled for at least one (1) credit and commence travel within one (1) semester (including summer) of your request.

  8. You are strongly encouraged to secure matching funds from other sources (e.g., your advisor, the Graduate School and/or from any other individual(s) that may be able to support your travel).

  9. Funding awarded by the Graduate School is in the form of a fellowship. Funding provided by the major professor, department and/or college are funds that will be reimbursed to the student after the expense report is provided.

  10. The Award must be used for costs directly associated with travel consistent with allowable expenses per departmental and university travel regulations (e.g., flight, lodging, per diem, registration).

 

APPLYING FOR AN AWARD

Requests for an Award should be made in writing (via e-mail), directly to the Graduate Program Director (GPD) at barondes@msu.edu at least four (4) weeks prior to anticipated travel. Please also copy your request to the Academic Coordinator, Stacy Hollon, at hollonst@msu.edu. A request for a Travel Aware consists of three parts, all of which should be included in your request email request

  1. A copy of the Abstract acceptance, along with the Abstract itself.

  2. Travel requests must be accompanied by a brief letter from the student indicating the following:

    a. Name of the conference or professional meeting.

    b. The date(s) and the location of the conference.

    c. The title of the research to be presented and the list of authors. (The requesting student should be the first and presenting author.)

    d. A break-down of the costs of the trip.

3. A Graduate School ‘Travel Fellowship Funding Application’ (TFFA) available here 

a. The TFFA requires three (3) and sometimes four (for international travel) signatures.

  • Your major professor should sign first signifying that she/he supports your travel request. If she/he is contributing funds toward your travel, the amount and account number should be entered on the appropriate line. If they are not contributing funds, “$0” must be entered. The major professor must sign the form in the “Shared Funding Endorsement” section in either of these situations.

  • You also must indicate “Funds Requested from the Graduate School.” As of now you may request up to $600.00 (see bottom line of the TFFA).

  • The GPD will sign and indicate the departmental approved amount and the TFFA will be returned to you.

  • You will then need to forward the form to the College (Angela Zell zell@msu.edu and Mark Trottier trottie1@msu.edu to request College funding approval.

  • If you are attending an international conference, follow the directions on the form in the “International Studies & Programs” section.

  • Once you receive signatures back from all Funding Providers, forward the TFFA to the Graduate School  fellowshipapps@grd.msu.edu to request Graduate School funding approval. (See also number 9 above).

  • You should hear about your Graduate School Award, if any, in about 3 weeks. If you do not, please contact Ms. Hollon.

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