The Graduate School Student Travel Grant has three application cycles per year for domestic (including Mexico and Canada) and international (excluding Mexico and Canada) travel:

  • The application for travel occurring 9/1/22-12/31/22 will open Aug. 16 12:01am - Aug. 18 11:59pm MST.
  • The application for travel occurring 1/1/23-4/30/23 will open Dec. 13 12:01am - Dec. 15 11:59pm MST.
  • The application for travel occurring 5/1/22-8/31/22 will Apr. 12 12:01am - Apr. 14 11:59pm MST.
  • Applications are only open and available during the 72-hour period listed. 
  • All students and faculty planning research- and education-related travel over the coming months should consult the university’s guidelines and recommendations. 

The Graduate School offers partial funding for CU Boulder graduate students to present their work at meetings or conferences outside Colorado. The Graduate School provides a travel grant of $300 for domestic conferences and $500 for international conferences. Funds will be applied directly to the student's university account after the dates of travel have passed and proof of travel has been submitted (you must be enrolled during the term that the travel occurs or the funds will applied to the next term you are enrolled). If the account balance is zero, a refund via direct deposit or physical check will be disbursed by the Bursar's Office. If the account balance is not zero, the funds will go toward covering that balance. The grant is treated like a fellowship and reported to the Office of Financial Aid; therefore, please be aware it may affect your student loan package. This grant is contingent on account funding by the Graduate School.

Eligibility Requirements

If you received travel grant funding from the Graduate School during the last application cycle (May for current fall applicants, November for current spring applicants) you may not apply during this cycle. Masters students can receive travel funding once, and PhD students can receive funding twice during their studies at CU.

  • The applicant must be a full-time graduate student in good standing, and the travel must occur while the applicant is a current student.
  • The applicant must be traveling outside the state of Colorado. 
  • The applicant must be traveling to a meeting or conference to present his/her own work or work on which he/she is the primary author. 
  • An applicant receiving significant funding (over $800 for domestic travel and $1,500 for international) from an outside source (fellowship, stipend, scholarship, grant, departmental travel grant) is not eligible.  
  • The applicant must be enrolled during the term that the travel occurs (excluding summer). If the travel occurs during the summer (and the applicant is not enrolled), the grant will be applied to the fall bill.

Required Elements

Here are the required elements on the application:

  • Applicant ID and contact information
  • Dates of Conference
  • Location of Conference
  • Department travel liaison contact information
  • Academic Advisor contact information
  • Applicant must confirm in writing by marking a checkbox that they have received their advisor’s approval for the travel
  • Supporting documents showing that you will be presenting at this conference (e.g. acceptance letter/email, program, abstract etc.) 

Note: If you are planning to attend a conference, but do not have an acceptance letter/email yet – you should still apply! Contact graduate.contest@colorado.edu for further details.

Applications must be submitted through Academic Works: To access Academic Works, log into the Buff Portal and click on the menu icon in the top, left corner. Click on "Finances" in the available list, which will open a new page. Find the 'Scholarships' block and click on 'Apply For & Manage Scholarships' which will take you into Academic Works. Search for the Graduate School Travel Grant and select the proper one (international or domestic) to apply!

Please note that all first-time users of Academic Works are prompted to fill out a ‘general application’ before being able to search the system and apply to other grants, scholarships, etc. This general application will allow you to match automatically with other scholarships in the system, but is not required for the Graduate School opportunities. Therefore, if you would like to be considered for other possible scholarship opportunities feel free to thoughtfully fill out the general application. If you do not wish to be considered, you must still fill it out, but you can type N/A in the spaces. This form is not required for this award and will not be considered during the judging.