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Office of the Provost

University Conference Travel Grant Program

 

IMPORTANT UPDATES TO UCTG (4/2024) 

 

  • Applicants are no longer required to exhaust department and college travel funding sources before applying for UCTG.
  • Faculty are eligible for a UCTG award once every 24 months, based on the date of last funded conference travel.
  • Dean’s approval is no longer required; department chairs will still be asked to provide input on the significance of the conference.
  • The maximum award is $2,500. Please do not submit requests that exceed this amount.
  • Applicants are welcome to combine UCTG awards with funding from other sources, if permitted by those sources.
  • We are unable to consider off-cycle applications until further notice. We anticipate re-evaluating after the 2024-2025 academic year.

Please read the revised program guidelines below

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1.  Purpose and Scope

The University Conference Travel Grant (UCTG) Program offers limited funding of up to $2,500 to subsidize the cost of qualified conference travel.

 

2.  Eligibility

  The UCTG program is open to tenure-track, tenured, or full-time continuing non-tenure-track faculty to present work at national or international meetings, exhibitions, festivals, or other venues appropriate for a given discipline.

  Eligibility is limited to travel and/or allowable expenses for one conference every 24 months, based on the date of your last UCTG-funded conference travel. E.g., if you use UCTG funds for a conference in June 2024, your next possible UCTG award is for a conference during or after June 2026.

  Faculty must be presenting their own individual or collaborative work at the conference to eligible for UCTG support (see section 3, below, for more detail).

  Applicants must certify that the scholarly work to be presented has not been published or previously presented.

  Conference participation that is limited to organizational activities (e.g., session chair, panelist, reviewer, judge, workshop attendee, etc.) is not eligible for support.

  Faculty may apply if they have submitted to present work at a conference but have not yet received confirmation of acceptance. However, award funds will not be released without notification of final acceptance (email final acceptance to VIRS Grants)

  Proposals for retroactive reimbursement of costs of travel that has already occurred will not be considered.

  UCTG funds may be used to support either virtual/online or in-person conference attendance.

 

3.  Types of Conferences Eligible for Support

UCTG funds may be used for faculty travel and/or eligible expenses related to presenting work at a variety of venues of national or international scope. These venues include but are not necessarily limited to in-person or virtual meetings of a national or international professional society; meetings sponsored by a government agency or industrial society if the meetings are of an academic nature; juried competitions; conferences on a specified topic at which attendance is by invitation only; invited performances at meetings/exhibitions/festivals; and other meetings as deemed appropriate. For questions about conference appropriateness and UCTG eligibility, please contact VIRS Grants.

 

4.  Selection Criteria

Selection criteria, in order of priority, are as follows:

1. Rank: priority will be given to tenure-track Assistant Professors and to full-time continuing non-tenure-track Assistant Professor.

2. The nature of the presentation, prioritized as: 1) keynote or plenary speaker/presenter, 2) invited speaker/presenter, 3) contributing speaker/presenter. In general, the UCTG Program will not provide travel support for faculty delivering poster presentations.

3. The extent to which participation in the meeting will further the career development of the faculty member.

4. The significance of the presentation with respect to the faculty member’s academic discipline.

5. The significance of the meeting itself.

6. The extent to which participation in the meeting will enhance the University’s reputation.

7. The applicant’s record of scholarly productivity, as evidenced by refereed publications or other discipline-specific scholarly activity, over the past five years.

     

5. Application Process

The application process is handled through Villanova's InfoReady Portal. Please include all the requested information to avoid having the application returned to you for additional information.

The budget is integrated into the application form.

You will be asked to include an abbreviated CV with 5 years of publications and conference presentations (fewer years is acceptable for applicants who are newer to the profession). Your CV may not exceed 3 pages.

Proposals are automatically routed through InfoReady to the applicant’s Department Chair for comment on the significance and merit of the proposed conference travel. Please plan to submit your application 2-3 days prior to the deadline to allow time for this step.

 

6.  Application Timetable

Applications are due in early October and early February each year (exact dates will be provided by the start of each semester). Decisions will be made approximately four to six weeks after the submission deadlines with award announcements to follow as quickly as possible thereafter.

Application submission deadline: Monday, February 10, 2025 by 5 p.m.

 

7.  Application Review Process

Submitted applications are routed to the applicant’s Department Chair for comment on the significance and merit of the proposed conference travel. 

All completed applications will be evaluated by the UCTG committee of tenured and CNT faculty from across the University, appointed by the Director of VIRS.

 

8.  Award Terms

  Awards are intended to subsidize the cost of participation, including registration fees, transportation, lodging, and meals, subject to the University’s Travel and Business Expense policies.

  The maximum award is $2,500. The committee will evaluate all proposed costs for reasonableness and make budgetary adjustments as deemed appropriate.

  For costs exceeding $2,500, applicants may combine UCTG funds with other funding sources, if permitted by those sources. Applicants are responsible for understanding the terms and restrictions of supplementary funding sources.

Note to CLAS faculty: FRDG does not permit combination with UCTG. Please do not apply for UCTG and FRDG together.

  If costs exceed $2,500, a UCTG award will be provisional and contingent upon identifying and securing the necessary supplemental funds. UCTG funds will not be disbursed until supplementary funds are confirmed. (Confirmation is not necessary if supplementary funds are from personal sources or an individual research account.) 

 Meal costs

For domestic travel: may be requested up to the federal government M&I per diem rate for the destination city. Applicants are NOT REQUIRED to request the full per diem allowance.

For international travel: may be requested up to the U.S. Department of State per diem rate for foreign travel. Applicants are NOT REQUIRED to request the full per diem allowance.

Per diem rates are used to set a ceiling on daily meal expenses but only ACTUAL meal expenses will be reimbursed. Reimbursement on a per diem basis is not allowed by university policy. 

  Awards will not cover the costs of membership fees, workshops, social events, field trips or related activities held in association with a meeting/event.

  Faculty who need to arrange for childcare due to conference attendance may qualify for the Backup Care Reimbursement Program to defray childcare costs.

 

9. UCTG Committee Members

  • Janice Bially Mattern, PhD, Villanova Institute for Research and Scholarship
  • Bridget Wadzuk, PhD, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Bonnie Henderson, PhD, Department of Geography and the Environment
  • Michael Risch, JD, Charles Widger School of Law
  • Michael Curran, PhD, Villanova School of Business