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Interdisciplinary Conference Travel Grants for Mellon-Affiliated Students

Students actively affiliated with the Mellon clusters in the Humanities and Qualitative Social Sciences are eligible for travel support to attend conferences and/or seminars and make presentations on behalf of Northwestern University. This is intended to support the presentation of research at conferences not specifically in the student’s home discipline but rather allied to the interdisciplinary range of a Mellon cluster. This is not intended to support attending courses at other schools, research, or general educational travel.

All travelers must adhere to the University's travel guidelines.

Deadline

  • Applications must be submitted no fewer than ten (10) business days prior to the conference start date.
  • Applications submitted after the conference has begun will not be approved under any circumstances.

Eligibility

  • Students must be active (not discontinued, graduated, or on leave) in PhD or MFA programs administered by The Graduate School (TGS) and within their degree time limitation at the time of the conference travel. Should students graduate or otherwise depart the University prior to travel and/or expenditure of funds, funds will not be available. Students who have not yet begun their academic program are not eligible to apply until their academic program officially commences.
  • The conference should be allied to the interdisciplinary range of a Mellon cluster. Applications must be endorsed by the faculty director of the cluster with which the applicant is affiliated.
  • Students are eligible to receive one award per fiscal year and two over the entire course of their graduate career in The Graduate School. 
  • Students traveling outside of the United States must adhere to all graduate student travel policies. Failure to do so could result in revocation of the travel grant.
  • International Students: Check with the Office of International Student and Scholar Services (OISS) before attending or presenting at conferences, as CPT authorization may be required. For questions, contact oiss-advising@northwestern.edu.

Award

Amount

The maximum amount for each ICTG award is $1,000.

Eligible Expenses

Interdisciplinary Conference Travel Grants may be used for virtual conference registration fees or expenses directly related to traveling to/from and participating in an in-person conference.

Eligible expenses include:

  • Conference registration fees
  • Airfare/airline fees at the most reasonable and economical rate. Travel for Northwestern purposes should be booked through a preferred provider.
  • Ground transportation: Taxi fares or ride shares (e.g. Uber, Lyft), including tips, are reimbursable where public transportation is not practical. Rail transportation is reimbursed if it does not exceed the cost of the least expensive airfare. Private automobile transportation is reimbursed per mile at a rate set by the University for trips up to 300 miles.
  • Meals: Travelers should use reasonably priced restaurants and dining options. Alcohol is never an allowable expense. A per diem may be used for meals instead of  tracking itemized receipts.
  • Commercial rental vehicles: Commercial rental vehicles (economy, compact or subcompact) should be used only when it is impossible to use other forms of ground transportation, and when car rental does not exceed the cost of the least expensive airfare.
  • Lodging: Travelers must book standard accommodations in reasonably priced, commercial class hotels, motels, and Airbnbs. Conference site hotels will be reimbursed at the actual cost. To verify the conference site hotel rate, attach the conference literature to the expense report when requesting reimbursement.
  • Tolls and parking fees: Tolls and reasonable parking charges will be reimbursed.

Ineligible Expenses

  • First class, business class, or economy plus airfare
  • Airline, hotel room, or car upgrades
  • In-flight Wi-Fi
  • Alcohol
  • Books, magazines, newspapers
  • Childcare, babysitting, house sitting, pet-sitting (see the Dependent Care Professional Development Grant for information on funds for dependent care during conference travel)
  • Clothing, gifts, luggage, haircuts, laundry, dry cleaning
  • Passports, vaccinations, visas
  • Personal entertainment (in-flight movies, headsets, social activities)
  • Meals and hotel stay during local (Chicagoland) conferences within a 25 mile radius of Evanston
  • Non-refundable fees that result from trip cancellation
  • Fees/costs related to attending or traveling to courses, extended programs, trainings, or other meetings/events that do not fall into the category of professional or academic conferences.
  • Expenses not directly related to traveling to/from and participating in the specific conference for which the ICTG was approved

Expense Reports

  • The Graduate School reviews all expense reimbursement requests and may deny requests if they do not comply with ICTG use guidelines or The Graduate School’s current expense guidelines. 
  • Expense reports should be submitted within 60 days of the last date of travel.
  • Expense reports must include prepaid expenses such as those through the University's travel vendors.

Application Instructions

Students must submit an Interdisciplinary Conference Travel Grant application as outlined in the Deadline information above.

Contact

For more information, please email: tgsacademicaffairs@northwestern.edu.