The Graduate School - Conference & Research Travel Grants

Availability

Travel funds are made available, on a competitive basis, for graduate students to:

1. Attend a professional meeting or conference, or
2. Travel in support of their research project

Receiving a travel grant

To receive a travel grant, an applicant must:

1. Confer with their Graduate Advisor.
2. Fill out the Budget Form, Travel Application,and pre-travel statement.  The pre-travel statement is a narrative which explains why the travel is necessary and is usually 2-3 pages in length. The statement may include any of the following:
   • A copy of the abstract to be presented
   • What will likely be learned
   • What will be achieved
   • The relevance of the conference presentations to the research being undertaken at WKU
   • A discussion of how the travel is necessary to gain access to specialized materials, instrumentation, or information, etc.
3. Ensure the student, advisor, and department head sign the form.
4. Submit the form to Graduate Studies at least one week prior to travel

Students can NOT receive more than 2 grants per academic year.

The new travel process has begun as of November 1, 2012. Please consult the following changes before submitting your application.

• The student will still need to apply for the travel funds as usual (following the process listed above). If faculty is taking a group of more than 10 they can submit one application with a list of all students attending the trip attached to the application packet. 
• The department and the college must put the amount that they will be providing the student. Any application that does not have this information will be sent back to the department.
• Once the student has been awarded the funds a transfer will be made to the department. Transfers are made on the15th and 30th of each month. These dates are not negotiable. The department will then pay for the amount that Graduate Studies awarded for the student's travel on their procard and save all receipts to submit after the travel.
• Once the travel has been completed the department is to submit receipts for anything they paid for relating to the students travel (hotel, flight tickets, registration fees, etc.) Any receipts, the banner print out of the procard, and a SEAT report must be included. If the department has to submit a travel voucher to the travel department on behalf of the funds that they were awarding the student please do not use Graduate Studies index and/or commodity code on the voucher.
• Click here to submit the travel voucher. 
• Click here to access digital measures.

Any applications received from November 1 - November 15 will follow the procedures listed above. All submissions will be reviewed at the end of each semester. If any information is missing, the proper faculty member will be contacted. If the paperwork is still not received funds will be removed for that student and returned to Graduate Studies.