Please note that these travel funds only apply for reimbursement for travel for which the student has paid, not their mentor/advisor/program. Applications must be submitted online by 4:59 PM of the stated deadline. Each cycle’s deadlines are posted on the GSS Funding page. You may submit 1 application per cycle but can only receive GSS travel funds once per fiscal year (July 1 - June 30). 

Read all instructions about eligibility and applying before proceeding! 

Award Amounts

GSS Travel Funds are awarded in the following amounts, depending on the location of the conference:

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

These funds are competitive, and we receive far more applications than we can fund. We reserve the right to provide less funds than requested.  

The award will be claimed directly by you, the applicant, via direct deposit. 

To be eligible:

  1. You must be a graduate student in a degree program at the University of Iowa at the time of application, time of conference or supplemental travel, and at the time of collecting the GSS Presentation Travel or Degree-Related Travel award.  

  1. You must NOT have already collected a GSS Travel Funds award in the current fiscal year (July 1 – June 30). 

  1. Travel to the conference must have occurred within the date range specified for the current cycle deadline

  1. You must attach proof (email or letter) that your presentation was accepted to the conference. This proof must be a legible file in PDF format, and can be either a message from conference staff, or the page in the conference program in which you highlight your name and presentation. 

  • Scholarly events that are not scientific conferences, such as Music and Fine Arts workshops or artist’s residencies, are eligible if the applicant is  (1) presenting  their own original work to (2) other academic peers as part of a conference program, workshop, symposia, or exhibit (3) in which the presentation or exhibit was chosen through a competitive/juried process and is part of a conference program. 
  1. You must have proof that you (not your department, grant, PI, etc.) have paid for travel expenditures for this conference.  

  • Please attach any receipts you have for your trip as an attachment to the Workflow application. Receipts should be consolidated into one scrollable PDF. If your travel has not yet occurred, please include any receipts you have, such as flight or hotel receipts. 

  • If your travel has already been reimbursed IN FULL by your department, grant, PI, etc., you are not eligible for this award. 

Application Tips

  1. Fill out the application carefully and completely so that it is not disqualified (see above). 

  1. The application website does NOT save your answers as you go, so we recommend that you save your answers to each section in a separate Word or Text document. 

  1. If you are co-presenting with another applicant, please submit two separate applications independently. 

  1. For the significance of the conference prompt, please explain why presenting and attending this event will benefit YOU as a researcher/performer/artist AND a student. DO NOT copy and paste the mission statement of the event. This will result in disqualification.  

  1. For the abstract prompt, please write an abstract that could be understood by an educated lay person.  

  • Creative Work: If you are performing a work or will have work on display at a juried or competitive show/exhibition/symposia/conference, please include a brief description of your work and where it will be performed/displayed. Please further explain the importance of having this work performed or displayed at the show/exhibition/symposia/conference. In addition, you may submit a sample video, photo, or recording of the presentation in the attachments section of the application. 

Frequent Reasons for Disqualification

  1. The applicant has already received a GSS/Graduate College Presentation Travel Grant this fiscal year. 

  1. Creative Students: If the event is not competitive/juried. 

  1. Application was submitted to the incorrect cycle. 

  1. Failure to provide attached proof of acceptance to present at conference. If you encounter difficulty attaching the document, please re-start the application or contact the Travel Funds Committee Director.  

  • Proof of acceptance must clearly demonstrate that you are presenting in the conference/collaborative performance, etc., and be the presenter (not just co-author). This can be in the form of a program or roster that clearly shows your name, or a letter from the organization/head organizer confirming your presence/participation at said date and time of the conference. 

  1. A portion of the application is plagiarized. 

  1. The application is written to fund research or scholarly production instead of attendance of a conference or similar scholarly event (instead, try the GPSG Grant or the Degree-Related Travel Award). 

  1. The Graduate College reserves the right to disqualify an application at any point in the process due to academic performance, academic progress, and/or previous Graduate College funding history. 

GSS Travel Funds Committee

Members of the GSS Travel Funds Committee review and score applications. Please note that committee members and chairs are strictly required to follow guidelines that they:

  1. will not give feedback on specific scoring criteria
  2. will not give feedback on the final score of an individual application
  3. will not provide copies of application materials
  4. will not accept late applications
  5. will not allow an application to be edited after it is submitted
  6. will not notify the applicant if an application is disqualified

Reviewing and Scoring of Applications

  1. Reviewers are members of the GSS Travel Funds Committee. This is a diverse committee of graduate students from various fields of study. Applications should be written so that a graduate student in any discipline can understand the work’s importance. Each application is reviewed by at least two reviewers who are not familiar with the applicant. 

  1. Reviewers allocate points for adherence to instructions, clarity, compelling justification of presenting at this conference, spelling/grammar, and properly attached documentation (please attach only the requested documentation). 

  1. Points are also allocated if there have been documented attempts to obtain funding from other sources (even if this funding is not obtained). 

  • For proof of funding, attach a PDF copy of a completed application/request for funding, or the letter/email from the person/organization that states you have applied for funding. 

It takes approximately 3 weeks for applications to be reviewed and for funding decisions to be emailed following the cycle deadline. We thank you in advance for your patience. 

Once an application has been submitted, it cannot be altered. If you have extenuating circumstances, please contact the GSS Travel Funds Committee Director as soon as possible. 

Notification and Claiming

If your GSS Travel Funds application has been funded, you will be notified via email (at the address you include in the application). 

Note: It is assumed that the applicant will claim the award. If for any reason the award is not claimed, it is the responsibility of the applicant to notify the Committee in a timely manner. Failure to notify the Committee of not retrieving the award makes the applicant ineligible to receive another award in the current Fiscal Year. 

GSS Travel Funds are awarded in the form of a fellowship. Please be aware that the U.S. Government considers all fellowships as taxable income. 

International students traveling outside the U.S. should contact the Office of International Students and Scholars prior to travel to ensure that all necessary documentation has been completed. To complete the fellowship payment for international students, please have the I-20 form and passport I-94 record entry available. The original documents will need to be viewed and copied and will be appended to the submitted receipts which will be kept on file.