Travel Grant applications for Summer 2023 are closed. Applications for the fall travel grant cycle will open in August.
The Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) is committed to increasing the quality of graduate education at the University of Colorado at Boulder. As part of this mission, GPSG awards funding to individual graduate and professional students to support travel to academic conferences, meetings, or other events related to a student’s studies. The purpose of these awards is to facilitate graduate student travel that is beneficial to academic and/or career development. Students from all disciplines and schools are encouraged to apply. All disciplines are given equal preference.
Eligibility
All CU Boulder graduate and professional students who have not previously recieved a GPSG Travel Grant are eligible to apply. Students are eligible to receive travel aid only once in their tenure at CU Boulder to allow more students a chance to get funding.
International Students - You are eligible to receive a travel grant! Please make sure that you will not receive extra taxes on the grants (checkout this link).
Please Note: The GPSG Travel Grant is different from the Graduate School Student Travel Grant. Applying to the GPSG Travel Grant does not affect your eligibility to apply to the the other and vice-versa.
Funding Amounts and Policies
GPSG Travel Grants award funding up to $300 to individual graduate students. Money is paid as a reimbursement, meaning you will get the money after you travel. Travel grants can be used to cover travel costs such as airfare, rental cars, accomodations, conference registration fees and other travel-related expenses. It can not be used to cover per-diem food expenses or personal expenses.
GPSG Travel Grants may not be used for travel outside of the United States, except to Canada, Mexico, and U.S. Territories. This is consistent with CUSG Fee Regulations Section 6.2.2.C.
Important Note: All transportation costs must be approved prior to booking a trip. All university funding, including GPSG Travel Grants, must be approved and follow the rules of the Procurement Service Center (PSC). If you plan to use your grant money for transportation expenses such as airfare or rental cars, you need to work with Center for Student Involvement (CSI) ahead of time before purchasing your flight ticket. Any travel that is not approved and booked properly through the Concur Travel Booking System cannot be funded through a GPSG travel grant at this time. See the PSC website for further information on airfare: https://www.cu.edu/psc/internet-airfare. Other eligible expenses covered by GPSG Travel Grants such as conference membership and registration fees and accomodation do not need to be booked through Concur.
For full financial policies and application rules, see the GPSG Travel Grant Bylaws.
Award Timeline
There are three grant series per academic year, one each semester and one in the summer. The Fall period covers travel commencing September 1 through December 31, the Spring period covers travel commencing January 1 - May 31, and the Summer period covers travel commencing June 1 through August 31. Applicants will be notified of decisions approximately two weeks after the application deadline.
How to Apply
Applications are currently closed.
The application form for each Travel Grant application cycle will be posted here during the application period. There are two components to the application:
- Applicant information:
- Name
- @colorado.edu Email Address
- 9-Digit Student ID Number (required to process reimbursements)
- Department/ Degree Program
- Degree Type
- Dates of Travel
- Travel Destination
- A one-page essay addressing the purpose of travel, your academic and career goals related to the event, and specific personal and/or academic benefits. Please see the below example essays and the essay grading rubric to get an idea of the level of detail requested. Essays should be single-spaced with one-ince margins, 12 pt font, Times New Roman. Essay files should be uploaded as pdfs.
Essays must be anonymous. This means that your name, an advisor's name, or any other potentially directly identifiable information should not appear in your essay. The file name of your essay should also not include your name. Applications found in violation of these criteria shall be immediately disqualified at the discretion of the GPSG Awards and Grants Committee. Since travel is often tied to a very specific project that may be identifiable to students in similar programs, Travel Grant applications are graded by GPSG members in other departments. E.g., an application from a student in Computer Science will not be graded by another student in Computer Science or another closely-related engineering department.
Travel Grant Applications must be the sole effort of an individual student. Students may not submit identical essays as part of a group. Applications found in violation of these criteria shall be immediately disqualified at the discretion of the GPSG Awards and Grants Committee.
Information for Travel Grant Awardees
Instructions to Redeem Your Travel Grant
Questions?
Please contact the GPSG Awards and Grants Committee at applications.gpsg@colorado.edu with any questions regarding the Travel Grant application process. For reimbursement and financial questions, please contact the GPSG Director of Finance at finance.gpsg@coloroado.edu. (Please be patient as we may receive a lot of emails during the grant application dates.)