Conference Award

Due to new financial challenges faced by graduate students in light of the COVID-19 global pandemic, GSC created the Conference Award in the 2020-2021 academic year, to help graduate students attend virtual conferences or those taking place in the city of Chicago and do not require travel funds. Unlike the travel award, the conference award is open to students who are only attending a conference and need not present original work at the conference. To eligible applicants, the GSC Conference Award funds up to $300, which may be used to cover conference funding for registration fees, meal costs and transportation.

Conference Award Eligibility

• Applicants eligible for a Health Professions Student Council (HPSC) Travel Grant may not be eligible for GSC Conference Award unless the applicant’s department has active representation in the GSC.
• Applicants must be attending a virtual conference or one taking place in the city of Chicago
• Applicants must be currently enrolled in a graduate degree program at UIC.
• Applicants must be (any one of the following):
  • attending a recognized meeting or conference
  • presenting his/her own original work at a recognized meeting or conference.
  • chairing a session at a recognized meeting or conference.
  • leading a discussion at a recognized meeting or conference.
• The applicant’s department must have a currently active GSC departmental representative. An active GSC departmental representative is one who attends all of the regularly scheduled GSC departmental representative meetings in a given fiscal year (July 1st of the current year through June 30th of the upcoming year).
• Applicants may only receive one GSC Conference Award per year.

Application Procedure

1. Determine the quarter in which the conference will occur. GSC will be dividing the academic year into four quarters, and applications must be received within the quarter during which the last day of the conference occurs.
   The quarters are:
   Quarter – 1: May 01st – July 31st
   Quarter – 2: August 01st – October 31st
   Quarter – 3: November 01st – January 31st
   Quarter – 4: February 01st – April 30th
2. Fill in the online application form at the bottom of this page (Step-1) and submit. You will be redirected to a new tab for Step-2.
3. Sign the one-page PDF form in Step-2 and have it signed by your Advisor and by your Department Head or DGS. Notice that three different signatures are required. If your Advisor is also the Department Head, you will need the signature of the DGS on your form.
4. Collect the proof of attending the conference, (this could be an email from the conference hosts), if attending without presenting or abstract and proof of acceptance if presenting/chairing a session/leading a discussion at a virtual conference or one taking place in the city of Chicago.
5. Compile the documents in step 3 and 4 into a single PDF. 
   • For applicants who are only attending a conference – (i) signed application form and (ii) proof of attendance.
   • For applicants who are presenting – (i) signed application form (ii) abstract and (iii) proof of acceptance
6. All applicants should submit the “Request for Funds” (RFF) form.Download the PDF file at this link:https://gradstudentcouncil.uic.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/106/2022/08/Request-For-Funds-Form-RFF.pdfFill out the Person/Vendor getting paid and General Information sections. Do NOT fill out the Student Government Info or the Approvals section.RFF forms must be a live, editable PDF document in order for GSC to process your grant with the university. Do not print/scan the RFF form.Save as .pdf with the file titled “Firstname_Lastname_RFF”
7. Email the compiled documentation from Step 5 along with the RFF form as a separate attachment to gscawards@gmail.com. GSC does not accept faxed applications.

Do’s:

• The documentation should be sent as soon as possible within the quarter in which the conference falls. Awards are granted first-come, first-served by a completed emailed application. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.
• Applications must be received within the quarter during which the last day of the conference occurs.
• Sometimes, emails sent from our  Award System get caught in the spam folder of Gmail/Webmail users. This includes notification of acceptance emails. If you use Gmail/Webmail, make sure to check your spam folder regularly. Add gscawards@gmail.com to your address book, so your notification will be delivered to your inbox.

Don’ts:

• Sending documents not enlisted in the procedure, will not improve the chances of being granted an award.
• Applicants should never send receipts to GSC. GSC cannot assume responsibility for receipts sent to them.

Important Information:

• A fixed number of GSC Conference Awards are disbursed on a quarterly basis, with consideration of eligible applicants based on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no guarantee of funding.
• Eligible applicants who are not granted funding during the quarter in which their event occurs will still be notified and are encouraged to retain their receipts since additional award monies may become available at the end of the fiscal year. Additional awards are contingent upon unspent GSC monies and will be dispersed based on the order of application submission date for each quarter via a lottery system.
• Notification of award status and instructions for processing a GSC Conference Award will be sent as applications are reviewed and approved by the GSC Conference Award Committee.
• The GSC is not responsible for missed notifications due to this problem.