International Travel Supplemental Grants - Guidelines

These GUIDELINES are effective December 2007, and supersede all previous versions.

International Travel Supplemental Grants

The International Travel Supplemental Grants (ITSG) Program supports faculty travel for the purposes of:

1. participation at international conferences and
2. establishing international collaborations.

Funded by the Virginia Tech Foundation (VTF), this program is administered through the Office of Vice President for Research. Awards up to $1,000 are made to supplement funding from the applicant's home academic unit.  Funding is awarded subject to the following terms and conditions.

I. ELIGIBILITY

Proposals are only accepted from tenure-track faculty as defined in the Faculty Handbook. The following appointments are not eligible for funding from this program:

1. Instructors
2. Research associates
3. Adjunct faculty
4. Faculty on leave - funding is not provided for travel to or from faculty leave situations or for activities during leave periods
5. Students

This program only supports travel outside of the U.S. Domestic travel, including travel to Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, is not supported. Exceptions to this policy are not encouraged but will be accepted for International meetings that rotate to U.S. territory and clear justification of benefit of such support.

• A. Conference Activity

  Support is intended to promote participation in significant international meetings, as compared to invited lectures at regional meetings (where most speakers and attendees are local), workshops, or university symposia.

  The applicant's conference activity, for which documentation is required, must be clearly indicated. Examples of eligible activities in the conference setting include: presentation of an invited paper, lecture, poster, or keynote address. Activity associated with conference planning is, in itself, insufficient. Because of the nature of professional activities in the performing arts, exceptions may be considered for these disciplines.

  Other activities (e.g., conferring with colleagues, field research, faculty/student recruitment) may be described in the final report, but need not be mentioned in the application, as its focus is conference activity.

  The following activities are not supported: research and field trips, equipment purchases, invited lecture tours, invited lectures at regional meetings, workshop participation or presentations, exchange programs, faculty and student recruitment, chairing a conference session (where presentation of a paper is not involved), travel of multiple authors, and attendance at more than one conference in 12 months.

• B. Collaborative Activity

  Support is intended to promote faculty travel for the purpose of developing international collaborations which will contribute to the research, teaching, and outreach missions of the university. Special consideration will be given to travel which establishes collaborations which have the potential for leading to increased sponsored research and to opportunities to enroll increased numbers of high quality graduate students. A collaborative activity might involve objectives such as faculty and student exchanges, sharing of data, and co-authoring proposals and publications.

  A written statement must be submitted naming the institutions involved, listing agencies that might fund collaborative research, and stating the reputational enhancement of the collaboration sought. If appropriate, a history of previous collaborations or associations should be included. Also, if research activities are involved, an estimate of the amount and portion of these activities that would be housed at Virginia Tech would be helpful. Finally, the means by which the success of the collaboration will be assessed should be described.

• C. Multiple program awards

  Awards are limited to one per fiscal year. Requesters with the opportunity to attend several meetings in the course of the year can only expect this program to support travel to one of those meetings. That is, when an award is granted for a conference that ends in a particular fiscal year (between July 1 and the following June 30), requests by the awardee to support travel to another conference ending in that same fiscal year will only be considered under the most unusual circumstances. Consideration is based on the end-of-conference date, not the submission or review date.

II. APPLICATION PROCEDURES

A. Obtaining Guidelines and Forms

The forms are available here. Please submit the appropriate application form for conference activity or collaborative activity.

B. Application Form

• Budget Section — The budget section indicates anticipated expenses and cost-sharing commitments by university units.
• Signatures — Endorsements from the designated college and department representatives confirm that the administrators have reviewed the proposal and agree to provide the stated contribution.  The signature from both college and department are required even if financial support is not provided. The requester signs to indicate acceptance of terms and conditions of the program.

C. Documentation

• a) Travel for Conference Attendance
  1. Scope of the conference — Whatever supports the claim that the conference in question meets the program requirements should be submitted. This might be a call for papers, conference brochure, or a paragraph written to indicate the number and nationality of speakers/attendees.

  2. Acceptance of papers — Invitations alone are not considered to be sufficient documentation. Some official (conference) recognition of the requester's participation must be presented. E-mail or fax confirmation is acceptable, and submission of an advance copy of the program is sufficient.
   
• b) Travel to Establish International Collaborations

  A statement should be submitted describing the nature of the collaboration sought and listing the names of the institutions and individuals involved. The connection of the proposed travel to other goals of the Program should be clearly stated. The grant application should provide a letter of invitation or equivalent from the individual(s) or organization(s) to be visited and, if appropriate, a history of previous collaborations or associations.

  Proposal Submission Requests may be submitted at any time from six months up to 30 days prior to the traveler's departure date.  These time constraints will be firmly held. The proposal should be submitted to:
  ITSG Program Administrator, c/o Office of the Vice President for Research, 340 Burruss Hall, Mail Code 0244

  Requests submitted less than 30 days prior to the departure date will be considered at the discretion of the administrator and will not be permitted except under very unusual circumstances. Retroactive requests (made during or after the conference/travel period) will not be considered.

D. Administrative Review

Proposals will be reviewed by the Associate Vice President for Research and Interdisciplinary Programs.

III. AWARD

• A. Announcement

  Decisions concerning proposals will be announced as soon as possible after receipt of the proposal by the program administrator. Notification of award will be sent by e-mail to the requester, with copies to the appropriate college dean and department head, and the Virginia Tech Foundation (VTF) administrator. If bookkeepers need this information please add their email addresses to the application.

• B. Reimbursement from the Virginia Tech Foundation

  Upon written notification of award from the program administrator, funds will be available from the Virginia Tech Foundation. Awardees may request reimbursement for travel expenses through the use of a travel authority (TA), request for payment form, travel reimbursement voucher, or by transferring the funds from the Foundation account to a state account. Please note that an international travel approval form is not required by the Foundation for expenses charged to its accounts, but will be required if expenses are charged to state accounts. For assistance, travelers should consult their departmental bookkeepers or the VTF administrator at 231-4725.

  Requests for payment must be made no later than 30 days from the activity (end-of-conference) date. At the end of the fiscal year the date may be less than 30 days to meet the deadline of submission of reimbursements set by the VTF. Individual account balances will revert to the program if reimbursement requests are not made within that time. Extensions will be awarded only under the most unusual circumstances.

• C. Conditional Award

  Conditional awards can be made contingent on receipt of required or supporting documentation or additional information which is not available or provided at the time of request for support. Accounts will not be established, however, until the required information is provided to the program administrator.

• D. Restricted Use of the Award

  Grant awards are proposal-specific and may not be transferred to another activity or individual. This is a faculty development program; graduate students may not use monies awarded to their advisors.

• E. Returned Awards

  It is the responsibility of the recipient to notify the program administrator if an award cannot be used as anticipated. Should an awardee be unable to use an award for the requested purpose, the award will revert to the program. The requester may not assume an award can be used at a later date if the conference is postponed or canceled.  In that case, the requester must apply for a new award.

IV. FINAL REPORT

A report of no more than one page must be submitted to the program administrator within 30 days of the end-of-conference date. It may be e-mailed (skey@vt.edu), faxed, or sent as hard copy to the program administrator (0244), with copies to the department head and college dean. It should explain how this opportunity contributed to the goals of this program. Awardee feedback allows the program administrator to monitor the program's effectiveness.

V. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• A. Frequently asked questions about this program:

  1. My department and college have no money to support my request. Can I apply anyway? Ordinarily, no. This is a supplemental program, and rather than fund the bulk of a traveler’s expenses, awards are intended to leverage support from other sources, one of which must be an academic unit. The contribution may be modest, but is required as evidence that the department head/college dean acknowledges the significance of the activity. However, if a financial contribution for your travel cannot be provided by your department or college, a letter from the appropriate department or college is required indicating the programmatic support of the proposed activity. Requests for such travel will be granted at the discretion of the Program Administrator.
  2. If I've received previous funding from this program, am I eligible for further awards? Yes, as long as you limit requests for support to one conference per fiscal year.
  3. Won't I have a better chance of being funded if I submit my request early in the fiscal year? No, applications will not be accepted prior to six months in advance of the proposed travel.
  4. Conference activity is important for the professional development of my student; why can't my award be shared with him/her? Support for students is provided by the Graduate Student Assembly. For details on the GSA Travel Fund, consult the GSA Home Page at http://gsa.uusa.vt.edu and select Travel Fund under GSA Programs, or call 231-7919.
  5. I am an instructor/adjunct professor/research associate. International conference activity is necessary for my professional development - why can't I apply? While this fact is acknowledged, limited program resources necessitate limiting participation.
  6. Due to civil unrest/natural disaster, my conference was canceled/re-scheduled. May I apply my award to another conference where I am giving an invited paper? An award is valid only for the activity and period specified in the proposal. You must contact the program administrator to discuss your situation; depending on the time frame involved, you may be asked to submit a new request.
  7. I was granted a conditional award. What does this mean? Your award is contingent upon provision of required documentation or additional information. It is up to you to contact the program administrator and provide the necessary information. An account cannot be established until the condition is addressed. Failure to respond may mean loss of the award.

• B. Program Administrator

  Further information may be obtained by calling 231-4785, or e-mail to Shelly Key.