BioMed Travel Policy for Graduate Students
The Division believes that presenting papers at professional conferences is important to students' academic careers and growth as professionals. Pre-doctoral and Master's students who have been invited to present papers at academic conferences can apply for up to $700 (increased from $650 to $700 effective January 2024) to cover related travel expenses. In light of possible restrictions on Travel, Students may also submit funding requests for VIRTUAL Conferences. This is typically for registration expenses associated with the conferences. Students will be reimbursed for only one conference per academic year; reimbursement will not be granted for merely attending a conference. In order to insure that the limited conference-travel funds are distributed as equitably as possible, students in their first through fifth years of study are eligible for conference travel reimbursement; all students must apply for travel reimbursement at least one month prior to travel.
Applications should be submitted via our Google form (you'll need to sign in with your Brown e-mail)
See application for all necessary documentation required. Be prepared to submit your invitation to present, budget info. DGS signature is no longer required effective May 1, 2022.
Please remember that you must submit expense report information within 60 days of return from travel!
Please note: If some portion of your travel is being charged to a grant, AirBnB (and other similar organizations) may not be a reimbursable expense. Airbnb is considered nonconventional lodging and is only reimbursable when there are no conventional lodging facilities in the area (e.g., in remote areas) or when conventional facilities are in short supply because of an influx of attendees at a special event (e.g., World’s Fair or international sporting event). Such lodging includes college dormitories or similar facilities or rooms not offered commercially but made available to the public by area residents in their homes.
Brown does not encourage the use of AirBnB but it may be an allowable expense on institutional funding. Please check with your program admin before booking lodging through AirBnB.
International Conference Travel
Master's students and doctoral students in years 1-5 of their studies who are presenting their research at international conferences are eligible to apply for the international travel fund award. This fund is administered by the Graduate School. The BioMed Conference Travel Award may be combined with the International Conference Travel funding for students presenting at international conferences.
Recruiting Travel
In addition to travel funding for academic conferences, there are also limited funds available for graduate students and postdocs who are traveling to actively help recruit students to come to Brown for their doctoral studies or postdoctoral training. This is a great opportunity to not only promote Brown and its academic programs, but to also enhance your own professional development, networking, and communication skills. OGPS will reimburse up to $650 of eligible travel expenses for trainees who meet the following criteria:
- Be a current graduate student in good standing, or have a current postdoctoral appointment;
- Get approval from your PI/mentor to travel;
- Select an interdisciplinary conference that attracts a variety of scholars, including undergraduates (examples include ERN, EB, SACNAS, ABRCMS, etc.);
- Agree to read a brief Brown Graduate Program Overview before you travel and become prepared to field basic questions to potential students about the information it contains;
- Submit a one page statement that outlines the reason for your interest in attending this meeting and details specific actions you will take at the meeting to promote the recruitment of prospective graduate students and/or postdocs to Brown (include your name, PI/mentor name, and department at the top of the page). These actions could include staffing a table;
- Agree to submit a post-travel report (under 500 words) that explains what specific actions you took while traveling to support student/postdoc recruitment and outreach (expense reimbursement will be contingent upon the submission of this post-travel report).
Please submit your proposal via e-mail to [email protected] with the subject heading: “Recruitment Travel: FirstName LastName” as early as possible. Please send any questions (for example, whether a certain conference would meet the eligibility requirements) to [email protected]. Please note that there will be a limit on the # of trainees who can attend an individual conference.
Helpful Brown Resources
Healthy Brown: General travel information
TravelSafe: Brown's global travel registry for all Brown faculty, staff, undergraduate, and medical students to register their University-related travel overseas.