With funds from the Graduate College, The Graduate Student Senate administers travel funding assistance to pay a portion of both domestic and international travel expenses for graduate students who must travel for the completion of a graduate project, that is, their dissertation or thesis. The project can be research, scholarship, or a creative activity required to fulfill this graduation requirement. This includes research (archive usage, equipment usage off site), interviews (research related), investigation (for a book writing), on location filming, performance, etc. The funds are allocated by the GSS Travel Funds Committee to deserving applications at four deadlines throughout each fiscal year. Please note that these funds are restricted to dissertation or thesis-related projects. If you would like to apply for funds for research that is not dissertation related, please contact the Graduate and Professional Student Senate for information on their Research Grant or International Programs about the Stanley Graduate Award for Pre-Dissertation International Research. 

Some activities that DO NOT qualify for this funding are paper/poster presentations (see GSS/Graduate College Presentation Travel Funds instead), internship travels, job interviews, doing a study abroad class, academic exchange program, etc. If you are attending a workshop or a summer study program, you need to demonstrate that it is necessary to require the specific skills or knowledge for your thesis/dissertation. 

Applications must be submitted during the cycle in which your travel occurs before the cycle deadline. This may mean that you are submitting your application before traveling. Applications will be reviewed immediately following the cycle deadline. You must be a current student to be reimbursed. Graduating students must submit their applications at least one month before the last day of classes in the semester they are graduating and should reach out to the committee chairs after submitting.  

Here are the funding cycles: 

Application Requirements

1. A letter confirming that your travel is necessary for your thesis/dissertation. This letter must contain a signature from your academic advisor or Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) and a signature from one member of your thesis/dissertation committee. To qualify for this award, your letter must provide evidence that the proposed travel is necessary to complete your thesis/dissertation (i.e., equipment/materials are not available at the University of Iowa). This letter must be submitted in .pdf form and attached to the application. If you are applying for thesis/dissertation travel funds and are pre-comprehensive exam and your comprehensive exam is on-topic or will directly contribute to your thesis/dissertation, this letter should contain a signature from your academic advisor or Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) and a signature from one member of your comprehensive exam committee. The letter should indicate that your comprehensive exam is on-topic or will directly contribute to your thesis/dissertation.
2. Description of proposed travel, financial need, and why travel is academically necessary and cannot be conducted from the University of Iowa. 
3. Itemized Travel Expenses form converted to a PDF format 
4. If appropriate, please provide the relevant information approval documents from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

Otherwise, general instructions and guidelines are the same as for the GSS/Graduate College Presentation Travel Funds. Please look over the directions carefully before you apply for the GSS/Graduate College Thesis-Dissertation-Related Travel Award. The application can be found here.

Award Amounts

• Up to $500 for travel within 300 miles of Iowa City
• Up to $750 for travel in the lower 48 states of the United States greater than 300 miles from Iowa City
• Up to $1,000 for travel to Hawaii, Alaska, or international travel

These funds are competitive, and we receive far more applications than we can fund. The maximum award amounts are not always awarded based on funds available and number of applicants. We reserve the right to provide less funds than requested. 

Given personnel time to review and make the award, the minimum amount requested must be at least $50. If you have further questions, please contact the committee chair(s).

Please be aware that a graduate student may receive this award once throughout a given graduate program course.

Looking for more funding to cover your funds? 

Please visit the GPSG website to apply to the Research Grant, which will fund up to $1,500 for expenses related to research projects, which is not limited to dissertation projects. (https://gpsg.uiowa.edu/grants-for-students)

Additionally, the T. Anne Cleary International Dissertation Research Fellowship is open to those who are conducting their dissertation research outside of North America. These funds are not available to DMA students who are taking the essay option. (https://grad.uiowa.edu/funding/fellowships/cleary)

*Please convert to a PDF before uploading with application