CPS Departmental Travel Grant

CPS Departmental Travel Grant

The Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences (CPS) provides graduate students funding to support travel to attend and present research results at academic conferences.

Student Eligibility

The travel grant is open to 2nd year Master's^ and all PhD research stream graduate students (Masters and PhD) who are affiliated at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) and are supervised by a CPS faculty member.

^1st year Master’s students who were able to gather substantial enough data to present at a conference may be considered for funding (e.g., starting the program early as a research fellow or continuing on with the undergraduate thesis project). If applicable, a special consideration request needs to be submitted via email to the Grad Coordinator and to the Chair by the research supervisor of the student.

To be appropriately identified in ROSI as 'UTM affiliated', students need to complete and submit the Campus Affiliation form on the Provost website.

Eligible students must satisfy the following departmental requirements:

  • all of your TA duties/hours as per your graduate funding package - the expectation is that all of your TA duties are met at CPS; however, in some special cases, exceptions can be made
  • attend the CPS colloquium series (at least 62.5% of the seminars per year)

Grant Purpose & Timing

Travel grants are provided to fund graduate students' travel to attend and present their current work at CPS at scientific conferences, summer/winter schools and workshops. Other research travel purposes, such as off-site data collection or collaboration, are not eligible purposes.

The granting year runs from May 1st - April 30th and students may be awarded more than one travel grant up to a combined maximum of $2,000* annually ($1,700 from the department with a supplementary fund of minimum $300 from their faculty supervisor). Any unused balances will be returned to the funding pool at the end of each granting year. 

*If your travels will cause you to incur costs for child care, and you are in need of assistance with these expenses, please contact Marek Velits, CPS Manager. If you wish to explore and review all available child care support programs at the university, visit this Child Care Resources page.

Once approved, expenses can be claimed using the expense reimbursement form found at the bottom of this page.

Application Process & Deadlines

The CPS Travel Grant Application Form must be completed with appropriate details. The conference/workshop MUST be relevant to your current degree program as well as bring scientific value to your research studies. Results of the application will be sent via e-mail to the student. If you have any question about the application form/process, contact Michelle Bae at cpsgrad.utm@utoronto.ca.  

All applications must be submitted at least 1 month in advance of the intended travel. For conferences taking place in April, applications must be submitted before the end of March due to the fiscal year end. Requests submitted after March for travel in April will be applied to the next fiscal year's budget. 

Travel must be completed within six (6) months of the submission.

Adjudication

Travel grant requests are subject to Chair's approval. Travel grant requests will be awarded to all eligible applications if the allotted funding for the granting year has not been exhausted. If the total sum of grant requests exceeds the allowable funding, priority will be given to:

1.       Applicants who have not received CPS travel grants in previous years;
2.       Applicants who are close to the end of their degrees; and
3.       Applicants who have obtained external travel support (UTM, SGS, conference organizer, etc.)

CPS Travel Grant requires at least a $300 matching fund from the faculty supervisor. When the actual incurred expense is less than or equal to the CPS Travel Grant amount (i.e., $1,700) the supervisor's matching fund will not be used.

Safety Abroad Registration

Students planning to participate in conferences/research activities held outside of Canada MUST complete below BEFORE THE TRIP by visiting UofT’s Safety Abroad Office’s website - http://safetyabroad.utoronto.ca:

Expense Eligibility & Reimbursement

Expense reimbursement claims must be in accordance with the Travel and Other Reimbursable Expenses - Policies and Guidelines at University of Toronto. For a quick reference list for expense reimbursements, please follow this check list. Click here for detailed instructions on completing the form. 

Upon trip completion, students must submit an expense reimbursement claim for the eligible expenses incurred. The claim must be supported by original receipts/proof of payment (itemized and in the order of presentation on the claim form), boarding passes and the conference program. Where an original receipt is missing, complete and append the missing receipts form.The expense claim form and detailed instructions on how to claim an expense reimbursement are available on the UofT Financial Services website. 

Please submit your completed expense reimbursement claim form and the supporting documents (i.e., original receipt/proof of payment) to the Financial and Administrative Coordinator at cpsfinadmin.utm@utoronto.ca for processing.