SENATE RESEARCH
COMMITTEE
Conference Travel Grants
Guidelines and Procedures

The Senate Research Committee recommends financial support for proposals that will enhance research capacity, facilitate successful external grant applications, and increase the scholarly productivity of Lakehead University faculty members. In general, the Committee considers requests for funding to support conference travel from eligible faculty on the basis of merit, need, and the availability of funds.

Applicants should be aware that the Senate Research Committee operates under Senate-approved guidelines. All funding for internal research competitions is limited and designated for specific uses. Due to the volume of applications reviewed for most funding opportunities, the Senate Research Committee does not provide applicants with feedback or justification for its decisions. All decisions regarding the Conference Travel Grants are made by the SRC through an administrative review process and all decisions are final.

Deadlines:
Conference Travel deadlines are 11:59 p.m. on May 10 and October 10. Should these dates fall over a weekend, applications will be due the following business day by 11:59 p.m. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered. Normally, applicants will be advised of the committee’s decision within eight weeks.

All applicants may submit an application for one conference in any competition. Applicants will only be eligible to receive one Conference Travel Grant once every two years following the competition deadline of their last awarded grant (e.g. a researcher awarded a Conference Travel Grant in October 2016 would not be eligible to apply again until October 2018). Applicants are not eligible to resubmit their request for the same conference to a subsequent competition deadline.

Eligibility:
Preference for conference travel funding is given to the following (categories in order of priority):

Category One
● New tenure-track or tenured faculty members, within the first 3 years of academic appointment;
● Tenure-track or tenured faculty members who hold, or are actively applying
for
● Tri-Council funding; or
● Faculty members with a 3-year LTA (long-term appointment) and attending the conference within the term of their appointment.

Category Two
● Contract Lecturers teaching 4 or more half course equivalents;
● Librarians (as defined in the LUFA Collective Agreement)
● Research Assistant/Associate Professors (as defined in the LUFA Collective Agreement); or
● Postdoctoral Fellows.

The Senate Research Committee will only consider requests to attend a conference for the purpose of presenting a paper, conducting a workshop, a poster session, or an equivalent event. When presenting a joint paper at a conference, presenters must decide amongst themselves who will apply for the Conference Travel Grant. The Senate Research Committee will only grant one award for joint presentations.

Applicants must apply prior to the date of the conference unless the confirmation of notice of acceptance of the paper is received after the deadline. In such cases, applicants must apply to the next competition and indicate the notice of acceptance of the paper was received after the previous competition’s deadline.

A final report must be submitted through the Romeo Research Portal. Researchers will be ineligible to submit future funding applications until the final report has been submitted.

NOTE: Discussants, Chairpersons, and conference/workshop attendees do not qualify for conference funding support from the Senate Research Committee.

Value of Awards:

All funds are awarded on a competitive basis. The maximum amount for an award will be $1,400.00 and every competition is subject to the availability of funds. Funding for SSHRC Conference Travel grants is provided through the SSHRC Exchange program.

Available funds will be distributed by competition dates according to allocations made early in the granting year by the Senate Research Committee. In those instances, where all allocated funds for a given competition date are not used, these funds will be forwarded to the next conference travel competition.

Eligible Expenses:
Eligible conference costs include registration fees, meals, accommodation expenses, and transportation. Meal and accommodation expenses are limited to four days and will follow the Lakehead University Travel Expense Policy. Grants will not exceed $1,400 to any individual in a given fiscal year (May 1 – April 30).

Awardees must be physically or virtually in attendance to present their research at the conference; and monies cannot be transferred to another person.

Application Process:
Requests must be made through the Romeo Research Portal. To access the portal, log into myInfo and select “Romeo Research Portal” under the web utilities icon.

Revised March 2024