Travel Grants
The GPSC awards travel grants for graduate and professional students who are attending or presenting research at academic or professional conferences. In certain cases, funding may be awarded to students who are attending competitions or are performing research elsewhere; however, these students should contact the Travel Grants Program prior to applying. In cases where an applicant will not be making a presentation, the student statement and the faculty letter of recommendation should explicitly explain the importance of attendance for the student's professional development. Please submit all correspondence concerning the Travel Grant Program to gpscgrant@email.arizona.edu. Email is highly preferred over phone calls.
Travel grants are made possible by funds provided by the GPSC, the Graduate College, and Student Affairs fees.
Submission Deadlines:
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August 1st
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October 1st
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December 1st
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February 1st
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April 1st
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June 1st
Applications must be received at the GPSC Office or in the GPSC mailbox located in the Graduate College Office by 5:00pm on the deadline date. In the event that a given deadline does not fall on a business day, applications must be received by 5:00pm of the first business day following the posted deadline. Aside from the preceding exception, there are NO deadline extensions, and late applications will automatically be disqualified from consideration.
Upon receiving one's grant application a email of notification will be sent within two days. If you have not received a confirmation email within this timeline, please contact gpscgrant@email.arizoan.edu as we have mostly likely not received your application.
A Travel Grant can only be submitted for travel that has not yet occurred by the date of the deadline or for travel that began within one month prior to the deadline. For example, any travel that will occur after April 1st or that has occurred between March1 and March 31 would be eligible for the April 1 grant round of funding.
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U.S. Postal Mail* |
Travel Grant Program |
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Campus Mail* |
Travel Grant Program |
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Drop-off |
Graduate College Office Room 322 OR Graduate and Professional Student Council Office Student Union Memorial Center Room 323 |
*Please note that applications delivered via campus or regular mail received after the deadline are late and will not be considered. Regular or campus mail can take several days to arrive; please plan accordingly to ensure your application is received on time.
Eligibility:
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The applicant must be currently enrolled in a graduate or professional degree program at
the U of A.
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The applicant must be in good academic standing.
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The applications must be complete and in the format specified to be considered.
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The date of travel must be after the deadline or have occurred one month prior to the deadline.
Selection Criteria:
Travel Grant awards are quite competitive. Each student, therefore, should make every effort to clearly demonstrate the value of the proposed travel to the applicant's professional development. Travel Grant judges especially appreciate and give due weight to thoughtful, focused student statements and also value brief and general descriptions of the research being presented/performed by the applicant. The student statement and description of research should be understandable to graduate students in any field.
There are NO group applications allowed in this program. Should it happen that several students are attending the same event, each student must apply separately for funding, and each student must be responsible for creating their own application. Identical applications will be automatically disqualified from that round of funding.
For more information on the specific criteria the travel grant committee uses to evaluate each travel grant, please see the GPSC Travel Grant Evaluation Form.
Range of support:
Awards are contingent upon the availability of funds and the number of applications. The committee will award up to $500.00 per student, even though the cost of attending the conference may exceed that amount. A maximum of three (3) days hotel and four (4) days per diem will be covered.
Students are eligible to receive one travel grant per fiscal year. Note that the fiscal year begins on July 1st. For the purposes of implementing the 'one award per year' policy, all awards are treated as given on the application deadline for which a given travel grant application is submitted. A student may apply as many times as desired per year until they are granted an award, as long as they apply within the rules of the program.
Students are highly encouraged to apply according to their financial need. Realistic award amounts will receive a higher grade during evaluation. The student's effort to obtain other sources of funding will be viewed positively by the committee.
Notification of Awards:
All applicants will be promptly notified as to whether they will or will not receive a travel grant, once all of the applications have been reviewed. The process of award determination generally takes between four-six weeks. If awarded a travel grant, the money will be distributed through the applicant's Bursar's account.
Additional Information:
Applications are reviewed by graduate students from various colleges across campus. Each application will be reviewed by two judges, who will both evaluate the same group of applicants. Each judge will give a score, and the two scores will be combined to give a composite score for each application. Once all the applications have been evaluated and a cutoff score is generated based on the number of applications and the amount of funds available. Neither the GPSC nor the Graduate College evaluate the applications. It is the responsibility of the student to provide clear justification for travel to conferences outside of the United States (Canada is considered domestic travel). Participation in meetings solely organized or solely supported by a for-profit commercial entity will not be considered for funding.
Application Format and Submission:
A complete application must include:
One copy of the Information Form and Application Checklist
This REQUIRED form is for office purposes only. Please note that all contact information is included on this page only. Without this form, the GPSC cannot contact you should there be an issue with your application or should you receive an award.
Three copies of the following materials, in the order specified on the Information Form, individually stapled or securely paper-clipped. These materials will be distributed to the travel grant judges:
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Brief Student Statement (not to exceed 2 typed pages) should discuss the following items:
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Describe the event/conference you will be attending.
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How will this benefit your professional development?
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Description of efforts to secure other sources of funding (if applicable).
A brief description of the research being presented/performed (in some cases a submitted abstract would suffice).
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Letter of Recommendation - should be from the student's department head or a faculty member in the student's department. This letter must include a statement explaining the availability (or lack thereof) of departmental funds. If your recommendation letter is sealed, then you may submit the sealed recommendation as a supplement to your other application materials. In this case, please paper-clip to your other materials, so that your recommendation letter can be easily added to your other materials.
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Anticipated Budget
The budget should be reasonable with the regards to the amounts being requested. Students should include any efforts to save money including sharing hotel rooms, multiple airfare finder searches, carpooling, etc.
Sample Budget
Extra materials such as letter of acceptance to present, registration confirmation, or abstracts are highly recommended, but not required. These should follow the written statement in the three submitted packets.
If a student submits well before the deadline, but fails to supply 3 copies or is missing any component of the application, the student will be contacted and required to submit the delinquent components prior to the deadline. If the student submits an incomplete application and there is not enough time to submit the missing components before the deadline, the application will be disqualified.
