Graduate Student Travel Awards

The Research and Presentation Travel Award (RAP) is designed to supplement graduate and professional students who need additional financial support to secure FULL travel funding for professional development travel opportunities. The RAP Travel Award reimburses travel expenses AFTER other funding sources have been applied.

The Child Care Travel Award (CC) is designed to support graduate and professional students who need additional financial support to provide care for their child/children (beyond normal day-to-day care) in order to engage in professional development travel opportunities.

Limited budget for the Research and Presentation Travel Award and Child Care Travel Award programs require a selective application process. The Grad School will base award selection on the quality of the application as determined by the Review Committee. Priority goes to students presenting at conferences, traveling for research, or traveling to attend a conference, in that order. The Grad School will consider other types of travel award applications (e.g. unpaid internship, training courses) that do NOT represent a required part of the student’s academic degree program. The review committee, at their discretion, may make adjustments to ensure an appropriate distribution of awards among students from the various Schools/Colleges of the University.

The Graduate Student Travel Awards reimburse eligible expenses ONLY, up to the award amount and AFTER other funding sources have been applied. Please note that the RAP Travel Award reimbursement is processed through the Concur System and the Child Care Travel Award reimbursement is processed through the GrabHub system and either Workday, AggieBuy or your Student account (depending on employment status with TAMU). Students awarded a Child Care Travel Award should review the Tax & Compliance information below.

Eligible Expenses

RAP Travel Award

• lodging,
• airfare, 
• car rentals, 
• shuttles, 
• gas, 
• conference registration fees, 
• meals, etc. 

Child Care Travel Award

• Transportation and lodging choices that incur additional costs beyond the costs for the applicant’s travel

  • Child’s airfare
  • Car seat rental
  • Crib rental
  • Ground transportation charges for child/children(if applicable)
  • Additional charges for child’s lodging (if beyond the cost of the applicant’s lodging if traveling alone) 
  • Additional charges incurred when checking a stroller on a flight (if applicable) 
• Travel expenses for a care provider accompanying on trip (airfare, ground transportation, hotel)
• Daycare charges (not a spouse or relative; must be a licensed childcare provider; must be different from normal childcare)

Ineligible Expenses

Both Travel Awards

• meal receipts that include alcohol, 
• materials (e.g. poster printing), 
• supplies, 
• books, 
• equipment, 
• membership fees, 
• extra-curricular activities during your trip

Child Care Travel Award

• Food for your child/care provider
• Transportation and lodging choices that do not incur an additional cost for your child (e.g. can’t pay for the room they would normal use, but if there’s an additional charge for the child that could be reimbursed)
• Purchase of car seats, portable cribs, or other equipment.

Approved RAP Travel Awards for virtual conferences or conferences held in the Bryan/College Station area will only cover the conference registration fee. Annual membership fees will not be covered. The Grad School will not reimburse for travel outside of your travel window or if the travel does not occur. Students must follow Texas A&M Travel Receipt Requirements.

Reimbursement Eligibility & Guidelines

1. Awardees must be registered as a full-time graduate student at TAMU – College Station at the time of receiving reimbursement. NOTE: If the awardee is traveling over the summer but does not wish to register full-time for the Summer Term, they may: 1) register for 1 or more credit hours during the summer to receive the reimbursement during the summer, or 2) register full-time for the Fall Term to receive the reimbursement when the Fall Term begins.

2. If awarded, students must submit the Reimbursement within 30 days of the travel return date. 

   1. RAP Travel Award Reimbursement Submission

      1. Concur Expense Reports must comply with TAMU Travel Guidelines as found here. To receive your RAP Travel Award, you need to allocate expenses within Concur up to your awarded amount. Please follow the instructions in your award letter to receive the account number that should be referenced in your Concur Expense Report.
      2. Instructions on how to perform common Concur actions (create an expense report, allocate expenses, etc.) are found here. 
      3. Your reimbursement will be issued through the method you select in Concur. The Graduate and Professional School will not issue a check, nor will the student’s academic department receive reimbursement.
      4. A two-page reflection of the student’s trip (i.e., research accomplished, conference sessions attended, etc.) summarizing the trip and its impact on professional development and academic pursuits should be attached to the Concur Expense Report. The reflection must include the following statement followed by the student’s signature: “I verify that this is an accurate representation of my accomplishments using these Travel Award funds.
      5. If you do not have access to Concur as a Graduate Student Employee, work with your academic department’s Business Coordinator to submit the Concur Expense Report on your behalf. 
   2. Child Care Travel Award Reimbursement Submission

      1. Child Care Award reimbursement must be submitted using the GradHub reimbursement form (and should not be uploaded in Concur). This reimbursement form should include:

         1. Receipts for eligible expenses to be reimbursement through Workday or AggieBuy depending on employment status (See Tax & Compliance below)

         2. A two-page reflection of the student’s trip (i.e., research accomplished, conference sessions attended, etc.) summarizing the trip and its impact on professional development and academic pursuits should be attached to the Concur Expense Report. The reflection must include the following statement followed by the student’s signature: “I verify that this is an accurate representation of my accomplishments using these Travel Award funds.

      2. Tax & Compliance

         1. If the Child Care Award Recipient is also an employee, payment must be processed through Workday as supplemental income that is reported on their W-2 and with a supplemental tax rate of 22%, in addition to the combined FICA rate of 7.65%. 

         2. If the Child Care Award Recipient is not an employee, payment can be posted to the student account or through AggieBuy. FMO reports payments made to students through AggieBuy to SFAID. Payments can impact eligibility for other financial aid the student has been offered/paid. Should funding cause a student to exceed financial need or their cost of attendance, Scholarships & Financial Aid will eliminate the overaward/overpayment by reducing other aid, following our policy that reduces loans and work-study before adjusting any grant aid. Scholarships and fellowships are not reduced to resolve overawards/overpayments. Adjustments may result in the student owing a balance to the University. Tax and Compliance referenced the same SFAID document that we reference for RAP travel awards which determines which payments are reported through SFAID.

3. Awarded applicants who will graduate in the semester in which their travel occurs must submit the reimbursement form BEFORE graduation, as students CANNOT receive reimbursement after graduation.

• Select if you are applying for one or both awards for this travel purpose

1. RAP Travel Award
2. Child Care Travel Award

• Student Name, UIN, TAMU Email, Phone, College/Department, Student Level
• Currently employed at TAMU
• Committee Chair Information (Name, Email)
• Academic Department's Business Coordinator Information (Name, Email, Phone Number)

*NOTE: Your Committee Chair and Academy Department's Business Coordinator will be CC'd on application communications (submission confirmation, application decision, etc.)

*NOTE: If your deadline has passed, the application will not be reviewed.

• Travel Award Deadline Selection
• Travel Start Date
• Travel End Date

1. *We understand that travel dates can shift. If the applicant's dates change so much as to move the application into a different travel period, the applicant must resubmit the application for the new travel period's deadline. Please notify grad-travel-award@tamu.edu of any changes prior to your departure.

• Conference/Event/Trip Name (no abbreviations please)
• Travel Type

1. Domestic - Continental United States, Hawaii, and Alaska
2. International - U.S. Territories (e.g. Puerto Rico) and all countries outside of the United States
3. Virtual/Online Conference (only eligible to reimburse conference registration)
4. Local (Bryan/College Station, TX) Conference (only eligible to reimburse conference registration)

• Travel Category

1. Conference presentation (oral or poster)
2. Attend a conference (not presenting oral or poster)
3. Research project (i.e. collecting data)
4. Training
5. Unpaid internship
6. Other

• Concur Travel Request (PDF)
• Travel Budget - COMPLETE Budget Information, either in the Concur Travel Request or using the Travel Budget Estimate Worksheet. Please provide your best estimate for ALL anticipated travel expenses; even if these expenses are beyond the maximum travel award.
• Other Funding: Other funding sources (pending, received, denied)
• Conference Presentation Acceptance or Submission Confirmation (pdf) - see template (NOTE: If you have not received your conference acceptance please submit your abstract submission confirmation. We will grant contingent approval until the conference acceptance is received and sent to us at grad-travel-award@tamu.edu. We cannot accept applications after the deadline has passed.

• Academic standing (GPA 3.0 or higher)
• Full-time status
• Travel Award History (received before)
• GRAD Aggies Requirement: GRAD Aggies professional development event information and reflection (pdf) - see template with attendance and reflection screengrab instructions.

• Will the child(ren) travel with you or be cared for at home/locally?
• How many children will be supported by the award?
• Child information (name, age, birthdate)
• Use the Travel Budget Estimate Worksheet (see eligible and ineligible expenses under the Reimbursement section)
• Acknowledgement: By clicking here you certify that funds requested for child care are due to professional travel, and are above and beyond normal child care expenses (e.g., normal daycare or care by a spouse, partner, or other family member will not be covered).

See template (include Concur Travel Request Report for International Travel Applications.

By submitting this application you confirm that you do not have sufficient external funds (i.e. from your department or Chair) to fully fund your travel and that you have made your department and Chair aware of your application.