Conference Travel Awards

• Current CEAS graduate students presenting at a conference can request up to $800. Approved awards will be reimbursed via Concur, which means you will receive a direct deposit or a paper check (if not signed up for direct deposit).

• Current CEAS graduate students attending a conference as a non-presenter can request up to $300. Approved requests will receive award via Catalyst posting to their student account.  This could result in additional taxes owed.

• Students funded on a grant or contract are generally not eligible to apply for CEAS Conference Travel Awards. The expectation is for these students to be funded by that grant or contract. Therefore they are directed to consult their advisor on funding, and then they can submit a signed travel authorization to their department’s business team for processing.
  
  However, if the grant or contract does not have sufficient funds to cover the full cost of travel, students are advised as follows: First, the student should apply for a conference travel award through the UC Graduate College. Second, if there are still eligible expenses after that, CEAS will consider cost sharing the remaining expenses at a 1:1 match with what is available from the grant/contract (up to the maximum amount provided by CEAS and subject to the availability of remaining CEAS funds). Your business manager must provide a letter detailing why the grant/contract cannot fully cover the travel funds.

Students not funded on grants and contracts who are presenting at a conference can seek college funds by completing the CEAS Travel Request and a Travel Authorization Form. (When following the link to the CEAS travel request form, go to the Graduate Study Forms tab.) These should be submitted as early as possible to CEASconftravel@ucmail.uc.edu BEFORE travelling and require the signature of your advisor. The College will consider all such requests for funds.  There are limited funds available so if the demand exceeds the requests, funding will be prioritized based on when the request was received. 

Please make sure your receipts for all expenses below are itemized; here is what we mean by itemized:

• Date and time of transaction included
• Method of payment indicated (such as last four digits of credit card)
• Specific items purchased listed, including quantities and amounts for each item
• Unit price and total costs (For example, a hotel receipt should include the dates of the stay, room charges for each night, plus any taxes and fees broken down.) 
• Taxes paid (remember the University can only reimburse taxes on hotel or airfare)
• Total amount paid

Yes.  However, we cannot cover the cost of membership if that is included in the reservation.

• For transportation to and from conferences, please use the most cost effective means possible. 
• CEAS cannot reimburse gas charges for personal vehicles.  Instead, CEAS can provide mileage reimbursement for trips less than 150 miles from UC.  For trips greater than this distance, please use other means of travel. 
• For rental car charges, the University can only pay for the rental car and fuel charges.  We cannot pay for insurance on the rental car or any other optional add-on expenses.  Please choose the economy car option for travel, unless transporting multiple UC students to the conference. 
• Greyhound buses are also acceptable means of travel, if there is a bus from Cincinnati to the conference city. 
• Uber/Lyft and similar “taxi” charges need to please include the starting and ending locations.
• For airfare, only economy or coach domestic (inside United States) flights can be reimbursed.  We cannot cover any extras, such as seat selection fees, baggage fees, trip insurance, etc.    
  • If you use credits to purchase the flight, please document this on the request.

• For hotel charges, we cannot reimburse for incidental charges, room service, resort fees, upgrades, or packages.
• For Airbnb rentals, make sure the receipt contains the traveler’s name and itemized charges.

CEAS cannot reimburse for food/meals. 

• Please indicate on the travel authorization form if any personal travel dates are included prior to or directly following the conference.  Please deduct the personal travel expenses from the request, such as additional nights in hotel, rental car charges for additional days, etc.  Please document that the extra days of travel are not costing the University any more by showing comparisons.  (For example, flying out of a conference city on a Sunday vs. Friday will not cost more money.) 
• Generally speaking, for business purposes, you can arrive as early as the evening before the conference begins and stay as late as the morning after the conference ends.
• If your return flight is to a different airport/city than where you left, please show comparison rates in your documents to show this is not costing the University any additional money. 

If students traveling to the same conference share expenses (such as lodging, Uber/Lyft rides, rental car, etc.), please include proof of peer to peer transactions, such as Zelle, CashApp, or Venmo receipts. Please clearly indicate which student paid for which expense. 

Yes, you can submit a request to both parties and can potentially receive reimbursement from both parties, provided your overall expenses exceed $600.  CEAS will make every attempt to coordinate with the Graduate College if two requests are submitted.  The reimbursement could come in lump sum reimbursement or two separate reimbursements (depending on time of submission and approval).