Postgraduate Travel Fund


LSE's Postgraduate Travel Fund assists research students who are presenting at conferences related to their degree.

 

Eligibility

The Postgraduate Travel Fund is open to PhD students who have been invited to give a paper at the conference related to their research degree. Other types of students are not eligible to apply. Students can be assisted with more than one conference per academic year, but will not normally be awarded more than £1000 in total per academic session. 

Please note that ESRC award holders are expected to have exhausted the Research and Training Support Grant available to them under the terms of their award, and to show how this has been spent, since the costs of attending conferences would normally be met by the RTSG.

There are limited funds available in the Postgraduate Travel Fund and it is expected that funds will normally run out before the end of the academic year. Early application is therefore advisable, ie as soon as you receive an invitation to present a paper.

Application process

Please complete the Postgraduate Travel Fund Application.

Applications must be completed clearly and in full. Incomplete applications cannot be considered.

Completed applications should be submitted to the Financial Support Office at least two weeks before the conference. Retrospective applications will not be considered.

You can submit your application and supporting documents by email to financial-support@lse.ac.uk.

Provided all the supporting documentation has been submitted you will normally receive a decision by email within ten working days.

Should an award be approved, it is unlikely to cover the full costs of attending the conference and we are currently making awards capped at 70% of the costs applied for to allow the budget to last for the full length of the academic year. Applicants are therefore encouraged to explore all other sources of funding. Some academic departments have funds available to assist students with conference costs. It may be a pre-requisite that recipients of these funds have also applied to the Postgraduate Travel Fund for assistance.

Supporting documentation

  • Evidence of your confirmation to present a paper at the conference. 
  • Evidence of the cost of registration / membership in order to present at the conference
  • Evidence of travel costs in order to attend the conference
  • Evidence of accommodation costs in order to attend the conference
  • Evidence of insurance cover by LSE Health and Safety Team (if travelling outside the UK) - you will need to complete the Notification to Travel form
  • Supporting statement from your supervisor (included in your application or emailed directly to financial-support@lse.ac.uk)

If you wish to add 'holiday' or leisure days to your travel for conference attendance, the School may not be able to provide you with insurance and you will need to make alternative arrangements with an external provider. Read more about adding leisure days to your conference attendance.

In the event of the conference being cancelled, or you being unable to travel for any reason, you must refund any unused award made to you immediately and claim on your travel insurance to refund the balance. Any monies successfully claimed must then be used to refund the award. In the event that some of the award cannot be refunded you should provide evidence to explain this.

RADMA Research Student Conference Funding Programme

RADMA (Research and Development Management) provides funding for conference attendance under its Research Student Conference Funding Programme. The awards provide support to talented mid-study PhD students to attend a conference relevant to their PhD.  Candidates must be undertaking a PhD within the research and development management discipline at a UK university. The award will cover costs related to attending the conference, specifically conference fees, travel, subsistence and accommodation, and will provide:

(1) up to £500 for those students presenting a paper
(2) up to £250 for attendance only.  

There is no deadline for receipt of applications, but please note that applications are reviewed quarterly in January, April, July and October. 

More information about the RADMA Postgraduate Student Research Support.