Questions? Katie Lindsey-McCoy or 1-847-467-5076
Information Regarding Travel Awards from Northwestern
Your institution’s NRT program has built-in funding to send participants to the annual meeting. Participants whose travel is covered by their home institution can disregard the following information.
If your PI identified you as an additional 2019 meeting participant (beyond those funded by home institution NRT programs), and you successfully applied for travel funding, you will be reimbursed for your travel by Northwestern University.
Travel awards are only available to be paid to individual travelers for their own out-of-pocket expenses, in the form of reimbursement after the conference. No funds can be provided in advance. No institutions or individuals can be reimbursed for group travel expenses. See detailed instructions below.
Costs to be Covered by Northwestern Travel Awards
- Round-trip airfare, up to the per person limit (or mileage + parking if driving)
- Two hotel nights + taxes at the group rate
- Additional allowable travel expenses, such as ground transportation and baggage check fees, up to the per person limit
- Per diem (excluding meals provided at the meeting) if the per person limit allows
Please travel frugally, as costs will be covered only as far as the budget allows. Thank you.
Reimbursement Instructions for Participants
- FLIGHTS – Email a PDF of your paid airfare receipt immediately after booking to Katie Lindsey-McCoy. We are collecting airfare receipts before the meeting because they are generally the largest expense, and we need to monitor the actual costs vs. the estimated costs submitted on the funding applications. Reimbursement for flights WILL NOT OCCUR SEPARATELY before the meeting. Travel reimbursement will be a single transaction for each travel award recipient after the meeting. Your airfare documentation must be a paid receipt. Reservation confirmations will not be accepted. Final deadline for submission of flight receipts August 27, 2019. Airfare receipts must include:
- Total cost paid,
- Your name,
- Dates of travel.
- HOTEL – Book your hotel at the group rate by the deadline. Participants will pay for their own hotel nights (including room + tax + incidentals) at check-out. No hotel nights will be paid for by Northwestern directly. After check-out, request an invoice to submit with your reimbursement request. The hotel invoice must show:
- Your bill has been paid,
- Your name,
- Dates of stay.
- SHARING HOTEL ROOMS – If you share a hotel room, there a few additional things to keep in mind:
- If your hotel handles the cost-split, ensure that your name is on the invoice for your portion.
- If your roommate pays for the entire bill and you reimburse that individual for your portion, you must provide both (1) the invoice for the room and (2) documentation that you paid your portion of the bill to your roommate (i.e., a Venmo or PayPal receipt showing the amount paid and to whom).
- RECEIPTS – Receipts are required for reimbursement (up to the per person limit) for flights, hotel nights (invoice required), ground transportation, and baggage check fees. If driving, your receipt is your proof of mileage (Google Map PDF, for example) plus your parking receipts.
- MEALS – Most meals are provided at the meeting. If the per person limit allows, funded participants will receive per diem, excluding meals provided at the meeting. Individual meals cannot be reimbursed. All receipts must be received by the October 14 deadline to allow us to determine whether there is enough funding to distribute per diem.
- REIMBURSEMENT FORMS – Each individual participant will sign a reimbursement form (called a Northwestern “Visitor Expense Report”) in person on the morning of September 27.
- DEADLINE & TIMELINE – After the meeting, all receipts other than airfare (which should have been submitted immediately after booking) must be submitted as a single PDF attachment to NRT2019@northwestern.edu. Deadline October 14, 2019. Processing of reimbursement paperwork will occur in mid- to late-October. Reimbursements will be mailed as checks from the Northwestern Accounts Payable department and will likely be received by participants by mid-November.
Possible Help from Home Institutions for Graduate Students
Northwestern is distributing a pool of funds from the National Science Foundation across approximately 100 meeting participants, and we must follow Northwestern reimbursement policies to do so. This means that travel awards are only available to be paid to individual travelers for their own out-of-pocket expenses, in the form of reimbursement after the conference. No funds can be provided in advance. Receipts from all funded participants must be received in order to complete the distribution of the pool fairly across all. Only then can processing of reimbursements occur. We will handle this process as quickly as possible.
We recognize that these circumstances put a financial burden on funded meeting participants as they await reimbursement. If you are in serious need of assistance, we encourage you to explore these possible avenues of support from your home institution:
- Check with your graduate school to see if they provide short-term funding support for conferences, which you can pay back after receiving reimbursement from Northwestern.
- Ask your department whether they can direct-charge any of your travel to their own accounts and allow you to pay them back after receiving your reimbursement from Northwestern.
- Faculty members sometimes have university funding available to them as discretionary sources that they may be willing to distribute to you until you can pay the funds back after receiving your reimbursement from Northwestern.
