Travel Awards for Conferences, Congresses, Symposia and Workshops

Doctoral candidates, postdocs, TUD Young Investigators and Junior Professors of all disciplines at the TU Dresden who are full members of the Graduate Academy are eligible to apply for a travel allowance.

Note on the application deadline 31^st March 2024:

• The eligible funding period: 1^st April 2024 to 31^st December 2024
• Applications for funding for the participation in digital events are possible. In this case, please add a screentshot of the digital events showing the participation fees to your application.
• Please note that the decisions on funding will presumably be released mid July 2024. Thus, for your planning reliability, we recommend applying for funding from July 2023 onwards.

For a travel grant awarded from January 2025 onwards, applications should be submitted by 30^th September 2024.

Membership at the Graduate Academy:
Your GA-membership will be administered by Promovendus from September 2020 onwards. You can log in to Promovendus via your ZIH login. If you are already a member of the Graduate Academy, you can find the information related to your GA-membership directly on the start page of Promovendus. The reference number of your Graduate Academy membership is also listed here.

If you are not yet a member of the Graduate Academy, please follow the instructions of Promovendus for membership. Further information can be found on the website of the Graduate Academy. If you have any questions, we will be happy to support you!

Please note that associate members of the Graduate Academy and postdocs with a GA-HZDR membership are, contrary to full/regular members, not eligible to file applications for the Graduate Academy's funding programs. All other services are open to associated members and postdocs with a GA-HZDR membership.

Information for applicants from the field of Medicine (General Medicine) / Dentistry
As an applicant from the field of Medicine / Dentistry, please note that the Travel Award can only support your participation in events that are directly related to your doctorate / postdoctoral phase.
If you are planning to attend conferences in the context of your medical studies, please kindly refer to the FOSTER Funding Program of the Center for Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at TU Dresden, which provides funding for student research activities.

Travel awards support doctoral candidates and postdocs with travel allowances to attend congresses, conferences, symposia and workshops within Germany and abroad. Generally, active participation is expected (e.g. poster or presentation). Eligible for funding are events in presence as well as digital formats.

If you are applying for reimbursement for participation in a digital event, please include a screenshot of the digital event including the participation fees with your application.

Please note:
The aim of the funding program Travel Awards is to enhance the academic profile and visibility of early career researchers at TU Dresden. Therefore only events where the research is presented to a wide audience are eligible for funding. Workshops with the character of colloquia do not meet the programme objective.

The maximum travel allowance amounts to:

• 300.00 for the participation in digital events
• 750.00 EUR for the participation in events within Germany and Europe*
• 1,500.00 EUR for the participation in events outside of Europe

The travel award of the Graduate Academy will not be paid as an allowance, but is operated under the Terms and Conditions of the Saxon Regulations of Travel Expenses (SächsRKG) and the travel expense policy of the TU Dresden. First of all, a travel application form has to be filled out; afterwards the settlement/reimbursement of the travel expenses has to be claimed. The SächsRKG operates under the reimbursement law; this means that the awardee has to cover all expenses by him/her in advance. At the end of the travel trip, reimbursement of the occurred travel expenses has to be claimed. For more information on this topic please see Information for Awardees.

Europe* (geographic terms): Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Northern Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican City, Cyprus

All documents which have to be handed in with the application are listed on the respective call. Thus, we kindly ask you to carefully read through the funding program's "call for applications".

If you are applying for reimbursement for participation in a digital event, please include a screenshot of the digital event including the participation fees with your application.

Your supervising professor is the primary supervisor, who is officially responsible for you during your doctorate and who signed the supervision agreement.

No, it is only possible to apply for travel allowances for one event only. Thus, it is not possible to hand in various applications for different events at the deadline of the call.
But it is possible, of course, to apply for a travel award in the frame of each published call (deadlines: March 31^st and September 30^th). 
Nevertheless please note that as a rule, members of the Graduate Academy can only be funded with one short-term scholarship und up to three mobility grants per qualification phase (doctorate/postdoc).

No, it is not possible to receive a scholarship (short- or long-term) or a mobility grant (short-term research stay/summer/winter school) of the Graduate Academy/TU Dresden during parental leave. The payment of any scholarship rests during parental leave. In case of pregnancy, the payment of the scholarship will continue during the maternity protection period according to the Maternity Protection Law and after the end of the parental leave. The interruption during that time will not be charged on the length of the scholarship. Applications for Travel Awards are possible only if such an attendance during your maternity/parental leave is compatible with the guidelines of the scholarship provider or your employer. It is absolutely necessary to ask in advance and before submitting your application, if your donor allows or supports such travels.

The selection takes place by the executive committee of the Graduate Academy on the basis of the application handed in.  Based on the committee decision, the director of the Graduate Academy authorizes the travel awards. The travel awards are performance-based fundings and have to go through a competitive selection process. The main selection criteria are: qualification of the applicant (academic performance, publications, prizes/awards), quality and relevance of the event within the frame of the scientific research project, quality of the letter of recommendation and life circumstances (social criteria: e.g. children, family members in need of care).
Please note: a fundamental legal right to claim funding within the "Travel Award" funding program does not exist.

The application deadlines are

• 31^st March – Support of events which may take place earliest from April 1^st onwards until December 31^st the same year.
• 30^th September – Support of events which may take place earliest from October 1^st until June 30^th of the following year.

Please note that the selection results will be released by the Graduate Academy about 12 to 14 weeks after the respective application deadline. With regard to your planning reliability we thus highly recommend applying for travel allowances for events which may start January 15^th (application deadline September 30^th) and July 15^th (application deadline March 31^st) at the earliest.
Please consider that applicants applying for retroactive funding for events which take place between October - December (application deadline September 30^th) and April - June/July (application deadline March 31^st) have to ensure coverage of already occurred costs by different means, should their GA application not be successful.

Within the form “Letter of Recommendation” the academic supervisor*, who has to fill out the recommendation letter, is requested to evaluate the academic performance of his/her doctoral candidate. Thereby the supervisor can choose between "Exceptional", "Above Average", "Average" and "No assessment possible“. This represents a subjective decision of the supervisor and should not be related to the ECTS-Grade or the ranking lists of the examination office (e.g., ranking position within the course of study in the final year).

*The “Letter of Recommendation” has be filled out in general by your first academic supervisor or Young Investigator, who signed the supervision agreement and is also your main supervisor in accordance to the confirmation of acceptance by the doctoral office.