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URFS Group Travel Grants

URFS Group Travel Grants

*Thank you for your interest in the Undergraduate Research, Fellowships, and Service Learning Group Travel Grant. We have exhausted our funding for the 2025-2026 academic year. The URFS Travel Grant is available for individual student applications.

Undergraduate Research, Fellowships, and Service Learning Group Travel Grants are specifically for faculty who wish to help provide partial supplementary support to three or more actively enrolled University of Tennessee-Knoxville researchers/performers who have been accepted to present or perform undergraduate research and creative works at a non-UT sponsored conference or event. The faculty member applying for the group travel grant is not required to travel with the student group. The funds are to assist with travel costs (registration fees, airfare, hotel costs, or ground transportation to/from the airport may be eligible), but faculty are encouraged to also seek additional outside resources as funds are limited. Please reach out to urf@utk.edu to confirm availability of funding before submitting your application.

When to Apply

As soon as possible: awards are provided on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted. However, awards cannot be issued until proof of acceptance to the conference or event is available.

Grant Amounts

The grants vary by destination, number of participants, etc., but funds will rarely (if ever) cover the cost of participation in full. Outside funds should be pursued.

Eligibility and Restrictions

  • Any University of Tennessee – Knoxville faculty member may apply for this grant.
  • The funding must be used to supplement the travels costs of full-time University of Tennessee – Knoxville undergraduate students who are actively enrolled and in good standing at the University of Tennessee (URFS cannot provide funds for students who travel after their graduation date).
  • Faculty are encouraged to seek travel funding from their department and/or college at the same time as they apply for the URFS group travel grant.
  • Students may only receive one travel grant from URFS in a given academic year. A student funded by a group travel grant may not also be funded by an individual URF travel grant and cannot be funded by multiple group travel grants within a single academic year.
  • Faculty must provide proof of each students’ presentation/performance acceptance, which lists them as a first or second author/performer, to a conference before an award is offered. Travel must occur during the academic year in which the faculty applies (July 1-June 30th). If the presentation/performance occurs after June 30, the faculty must apply for the next available travel grant cycle.

Funding Details

Your grant funding will be allocated by your home department to be processed as part of your travel request.  If awarded, this funding would be considered a ‘reimbursement’ of funds after the trip is complete and all required forms have been submitted and approved through your home department. Please note that faculty and students must be in contact with their departments to understand departmental and university travel rules. International travel, for example, always requires pre-authorization for travel. If a department determines they cannot honor travel reimbursement because the student did not follow departmental or university policies, the Office of Undergraduate Research, Fellowships, and Service Learning can neither intervene nor provide funding directly to the student.

Recipient Requirements

  • Faculty who receive a group travel grant must work with the students funded by the grant to get a photo or selfie of each student funded by a URFS Group Travel Grant at the event (preferably a group photo) to document their presentation or performance and submit that photo and a paragraph describing the students’ experience(s) to the Office of Undergraduate Research, Fellowships, and Service Learning after their trip via the URFS Travel Report form. These steps must be completed before the funds will be released.
  • All students receiving funds from a URFS Group Travel Grant must present their work at EURēCA (spring) within a year of their travel; students who will graduate in December should present at Discovery Day (fall) instead possible.

 

Evaluation Criteria

  • This is a competitive award. Please spend ample time preparing your responses. Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria:
    • The description of the project, including relevance to the department/College/University of Tennessee, and relevance to the field of study (clarity, detail, and significance)
    • The description of the impact of the presentation on the student’s personal, academic and professional development
    • Quality of overall application

Details

  • Travel reimbursement is limited to permitted expenses as defined by university policy and will require proper documentation of expenses. Faculty and students receiving grants should discuss their travel plans in advance with the faculty/staff member in their academic department who assists with travel reimbursements. Travel must occur within the fiscal year in which the grant is awarded (i.e., between July 1 and June 30th). Award payments will be processed if the conference is complete and expenses are submitted by June 30 of each year. For conferences occurring after June 30, please apply for the next available travel grant cycle.
  • All reimbursements are handled through the faculty and student’s academic department upon completion of travel. It is the student’s responsibility to complete all university required authorization and reimbursement forms in their academic department by the deadline. Students traveling in May or June should be in contact with the URFS office to discuss and prepare for fiscal year deadlines. Please note: if the paperwork is not completed and approved by the June 30 deadline, the award will be cancelled, whether or not travel has occurred. Students are responsible for working with their departments to process their travel forms in a timely manner.

Application & Notification Process

  • Submit your (faculty) application.
  • The review process can take up to three weeks after the most applicable posted deadline.
  • We will send you an email with URFS decision. Please note that we make every effort to support travel grant applications. Travel grant funding, however, is limited and therefore competitive.

Award Process

  1. Complete travel grant acceptance form.
  2. Work with home department to complete any required pre-travel approvals.
  3. Complete travel
  4. Complete URFS travel report form and submit photo.
  5. Complete travel paperwork with home department
  6. Funds will be allocated to your home academic department.

For more information, please email urf@utk.edu.