Travel to International Conferences by PhD students

General Principles

1. The School of Zoology considers it an important part of the research education and training process to provide the opportunity for PhD students to present their research at international conferences.
2. Candidates should be encouraged by supervisors to submit applications to present at conferences at an appropriate juncture in their candidature and, assistance should be provided with the application.
3. Candidates may present talks on an individual basis, with another candidate or as part of a team presentation, which may include their supervisor(s). The candidate must be the presenting author.
4. Funds provided are usually only for some proportion of the actual total costs and the additional cost are to be borne by outside funding, the supervisor &/or the candidate. Although the School will be generous there may be a limit on the amount of money available and individual grants are limited to $1000 for full-time PhD students and $500 for fulltime Masters students (see below)
5. The level of funding received for conference travel support and the conferences attended during the current year should be noted on the Annual Review form for Candidates (under item B1).
6. . Candidates who have been previously successful may not apply for subsequent funding during candidature. However, all decisions made by the School, Discipline or Faculty Committee when assessing the conference travel applications should be done equitably. Additional conference travel will be a matter for the supervisor and the candidate.
7. Successful applicants must present their conference paper or poster at a School seminar before they leave in order to receive feedback and allow other students to see their work. This can be either as part of the formal School of Zoology seminar series or by general invitation to all staff and students at a convenient time as negotiated with the Post- graduate coordinator
8. As there is a separate funding scheme for QMS students, they are ineligible to apply to the School for funding; however, if students have applied to the QMS program and been ineligible and are in the last year of the PhD they may apply to the School of Zoology program with a letter from their supervisor explaining why they were unsuccessful in the QMS program.

1. Applicants must be currently registered candidates who are full-time. Candidates on suspension or who have submitted their theses for examination will not normally be eligible.
2. The application must clearly indicate that it is for a recognised international conference within the field of current study.
3. A draft copy of the manuscript of the paper being presented must be submitted at the time of application
4. Students should recognize that conference presentations are an important step in receiving feedback of their work but that ultimately the work should be published in a journal; thus a draft copy (>90% complete) of a manuscript linked to the paper being presented must be submitted at the time of application. This should clearly indicate the journal to which the paper will be submitted, the full list of the authors and a timeline for subsequent submission.
5. The School also encourages candidates to seek supporting funds from external sources. However, in the case where supporting funds are allocated from research grants or other internal or external sources, these amounts should be clearly indicated on the application.
6. Applications must be accompanied by supporting statements by the primary supervisor.

Assessment of applications

Applications will be assessed within the School by a panel to be convened as required by the Post-graduate coordinator. In the process of allocating travel funds, the criteria taken into account will include the effort of the candidate in identifying alternate funding sources, suitability of the conference for the candidate, including the candidate's stage of candidature and performance. The supervisor will be given an opportunity to comment on the application.

Funds

1. Maximum funding available for doctoral candidates during candidature are $500 for an international conference held within Australasia and $1,000 for an international conference outside Australia.
2. Candidates will be required to account for all monies spent for conference travel, including a travel diary in a report presented to the Post-graduate Coordinator within 4 weeks of return.
3. Please see the University web pages about Travel insurance and you must be aware that should you consider taking time for private travel while purportedly on University business there are important restrictions on the amount of funding that can be provided and there are taxation implications.

February 2006