Travel Award

The UIC Graduate Student Council Travel Award is available to students attending  academic or professional meetings. To eligible applicants, the GSC gives awards of up to $500, which may be used to cover conference funding for transportation, lodging, registration fees, and meal costs. (This does not include conferences taking place in the city of Chicago)

Travel Award Eligibility

• Applicants eligible for a Health Professions Student Council (HPSC) Travel Award may not be eligible for GSC Travel Award unless the applicant’s department has active representation in the GSC.
• Applicants must be currently enrolled in a graduate degree program at UIC.
• Applicants must be (any one of the following):
  • 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 Travel Award per year.

Application Procedure

1. Determine the quarter in which the travel 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 following documentation:
   1. An abstract describing the applicant’s work or presentation/activity.
   2. Proof of acceptance at the meeting/conference, indicating the applicant’s primary participation.
5. Compile the documents in step 3 and 4 (signed application form, abstract and proof of acceptance) into a single PDF
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.pdf

   Fill 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 Travel 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 the GSC. The GSC cannot assume responsibility for receipts sent to them.

Important Information:

• A fixed number of GSC Travel 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 Travel Award will be sent as applications are reviewed and approved by the GSC Travel Award Committee.
• The GSC is not responsible for missed notifications due to this problem.

Additional Sources of Funding to consider:

Support is often available from departments as well as professional societies and associations. The UIC Graduate College grants travel awards as well. Application information and forms are available on the Graduate College website.