Undergraduate students whose research has been accepted for presentation at a professional or academic conference may apply for up to $1,000 in PURA Travel Award funding. Multiple travel awards can be granted within the same academic year, and students may receive a travel award during the same semester of salary award funding. Funds are competitively awarded. Please read all rules, eligibility requirements, and application procedures below before applying.

Rules and Eligibility

  • Applicant must be an undergraduate student in good standing (GPA > 2.0).
  • The research project to be presented must be associated with a Georgia Tech faculty mentor or GTRI scientist.
  • Requested funding amount may not exceed $1,000.  Please note that we do not guarantee funding of the full amount requested in the application.

  • Funding can only be awarded to students who have already been accepted to give an oral presentation, poster presentation, or exhibit their work in another medium that is professionally accepted in their field of study.

  • All awarded travel students are required to submit a final report that provides a short description of the work presented and the student’s experience at the professional meeting, and this must be submitted by the last day of finals of the award semester.

How to Apply

Travel applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Applications are to be submitted through the online application form no earlier than three months prior to the anticipated conference date and no later than one month prior to the anticipated conference date. Please do not submit an application until your paper or poster has been accepted at the conference. The two major components of the travel application are the proposal and the letter of recommendation from the applicant's faculty mentor.

RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL.  Items to be included in the travel proposal are:

  • An overview of the work to be presented
  • Information on the conference (conference name, location, dates)
  • Format of presentation (poster, oral, performance)
  • Itemized budget (registration fees, airfare, hotel, food, rental car, etc.)
  • Cost-sharing available or applied for

Proposals should not exceed two pages in length (excluding references). Please note that cost-sharing is not required for a travel award application, but it is very helpful in allowing our office to fund additional student trips. If you have any questions, please contact Allyson Tant at allyson.tant@gatech.edu.

LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION.  Once a student submits the online application form, an email is automatically sent to listed faculty member requesting a recommendation letter. Recommendation letters must be received no later than one month prior to the anticipated conference date, and applications are considered incomplete until a recommendation letter is received. It is for this reason that we advise against waiting until the last minute to submit an application.