Travel Funding Policy

In keeping with the department's objective to represent Virginia Tech as a renowned research university, the Grad Council encourages high academic standards. It strives to provide financial assistance to graduate students who wish to present their work at prestigious conferences. In particular, it supports students' participation in acclaimed non-regional (domestic) and international conferences.

Who should Apply:

Travel funding is available to

• graduate students
• in Computer Science
• who will be presenting a paper, or simply attending (presenters are preferred over attendees)
• who apply on time
• with support from their advisor

How to Apply?

Before the Funding Application Deadline

1. Fill out the Travel Estimate and Approval Form and hand it over to Melanie Darden at the front office
2. The next step is to complete the Travel Fund Application (PDF) (DOTX) (OTT)
• Fill out the first page of the form.
• Ask your advisor to fill out the second page of the form stating that your attendance at the conference is related to your research. A brief note should be included why you should be funded by the department.
• Make sure both you and your advisor have signed the form
3. Print, staple and hand over the completed form to Carol Roop in 114 McBryde Hall by the deadline
4. Email a digital version of the completed form to the Gradcouncil gradcouncil@cs.vt.edu. Remember that this address can only accept email originating from vt.edu or any other *.vt.edu domain. If you are using a web-email account, make sure your From: address is set to an @vt.edu address.
5. The President and Treasurer will review your form and inform you by email about the decision.

While Traveling

1. Keep all your receipts and boarding passes. You may not be reimbursed without these.

Upon Returning from Traveling

1. Fill out the Travel Reimbursement Form. Use the Continuation Form if you need to make more entries.
2. Hand over this form to Melanie Darden for processing by the deadline.
3. We ask (but do not require) that you email (and Cc: the Graduate Council) Libby G. Bradford, the director of the Computer Science Resources Consortium (CSRC), with your name and email, your advisor's name, the title of your paper, the conference name, the venue, the abstract of the paper, and a link to the paper. Also, please include a digital picture of yourself, in case your work is featured in any CSRC publications.

Policies and Procedures

1. The academic year is divided into blocks to better distribute funding. You must submit your application before the deadline for each block to be eligible for funding.
2. The Graduate Council will distribute funds based on the following criteria in the following order:
   • Ph.D. Post-Qualifier
   • Ph.D. Pre-Qualifier
   • Masters Thesis
   • Masters Coursework
3. There are minimum and maximum amounts of funding. If there are too many applicants in a single block for all applicants to receive the maximum funding, the funding will be scaled back for all applicants to be greater than or equal to the minimum funding. If there are so many applicants that it is not possible to give all applicants an amount of funding greater than or equal to the minimum funding, then either the fund distribution will be adjusted to be as near as possible to the minimum levels or an appropriate number of applicants of lower status will be denied funding, so that applicants of higher status receive a reasonable amount of funding.

   Status	Minimum	Maximum
   Ph.D. Post-Qualifier	$300	$400
   Ph.D. Pre-Qualifier	$250	$350
   Masters Thesis	$200	$300
   Masters Coursework	$100	$200

4. Students may only request funding once per fiscal year.
5. Students attending conferences but not presenting papers will be considered for funding only after all presenters have been funded.
6. The State Travel Regulations only allow for meal reimbursements when an individual is on overnight travel status. Please refer to Financial Procedure 20335c (Meals and Incidental Expenses).
7. Retroactive reimbursement is not possible for travel funding. Please do not send funding requests for any past trips.
8. When package deals are purchased through websites such as Orbitz or Travelocity, etc. for flight and lodging combined, this can create a problem. Lodging must be shown as a separate charge on the reimbursement form, and this requires a receipt or some type of documentation for the itemized lodging charges. Charges for lodging must be broken down to show the nightly rate before it can be reimbursed. So, when you book a package deal, ask for a break down of the charges (flight vs. hotel) prior to the travel. If this is not provided, then you run the risk of not being reimbursed.

Funding Blocks and Deadlines

Applications for funding must be received by the deadline indicated in the table below for each of the funding blocks.

Questions?

Write to the Graduate Council at gradcouncil@cs.vt.edu. Any emails that are directed to an individual member of the Graduate Council will be forwarded to all other members of the Graduate Council.

Forms Required

1. Request for Travel Approval Form
2. Travel Fund Application (PDF) (DOTX) (OTT)
3. Travel Reimbursement Form
4. Continuation Form

Students Funded in the Past

Here's a list of students funded in the past under the Department's Travel Funding program.