GSA Travel Grants 

We know that it’s not always easy to scrounge up funds to present your work and rub elbows with the greats in your field, so we’ve worked hard to raise funds to help get you to your big conference.

GSA created a Travel Grant program to award graduate and professional students grants of up to $300 for in-state and up to $500 for out-of-state travel to conferences where you will present your own professional work. This program is funded by GSA, Graduate Division, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and the Office of the Chancellor.

Four rounds of applications will be held each year, one during each quarter. Funding will be awarded randomly from the full pool of eligible applications. Applicants must be presenting a paper or giving a talk on their own original research.

Have questions about the Travel Grants program? Email travel@gsa.ucsd.edu.

Eligibility

In order to qualify for GSA Travel Grant funding, all of the following must apply. You must:

• Be registered as a full time UCSD graduate or professional student during the quarter of the conference.
• Present your own original work (as a poster or talk) at the conference you are applying for travel funding.
• Satisfy criteria for UC San Diego business-related student travel, as defined by the UCSD Travel Office. Your PI or advisor must be willing to sign the UC San Diego Student Certification for Business-Related Travel form, for submission to your department’s fund manager.

All travel grant awardees will be invited to present a poster in the "Drinks and Dissertations:  Graduate Research Symposium" during the quarter their award is allocated. Each quarter, an awardee whose research is (1) innovative, (2) demonstrates originality, (3) exceptionally motivating will be selected by the GSA Academic and Judicial Committee to present their research orally at the conclusion of the symposium.

How to Apply:

Please submit the following:

• An application through our website by filling out your information here.
• Have your advisor or PI fill out the Advisor Support Form and Student Certification for Business Travel. This form should be uploaded to your application. Applications which do not include this form or which send this form separately will not be accepted.
• Fill out and upload your application before the deadline for your conference date! Deadlines for these applications can be found below.
  
  

Reimbursement Information:

Please check with your graduate program coordinator first to determine the appropriate travel reimbursement procedure for your program/department. Some departments have staff who handle the MyTravel steps described below, and they could help students in such programs to set up a MyTravel account.

General procedures are as follows:

• Log onto UCSD’s MyTravel page and click “create a new trip” before travel commences. Fill out the required information on this form. Specific instructions can be found here.
• Departments must provide a departmental index for the MyTravel trip once it is created, and process the reimbursement for their students as they do for normal student travel. After the trips is closed, Graduate Division will transfer funds for the award to the index used for trip travel.
• Students will need to have their advisor fill out and upload the UC San Diego Student Certification for Business-Related Travel form to their MyTravel.
• After attending your conference, please upload all eligible receipts to MyTravel and submit.
• Upon completion and submission of this form, your refunds will be reviewed and approved or denied by your fund manager based on the list of eligible expenses (see FAQ page).
• Your refund will be sent to you through the payment method you selected in the MyTravel application.
• If you have questions about the MyTravel reimbursement process, contact your department fund manager or the UCSD Travel Office.

GSA Travel Grant Deadlines