Mobility

LNDS Travel Grants

The LNDS offers a limited number of travel grants for PhD students enrolled in the full member/partner institutions University of Geneva and University of Lausanne who want to attend conferences, workshops or advanced doctoral courses in Switzerland or abroad. There are three deadlines each year:

  • December 15 (for events taking place before May 15).
  • April 15 (for events taking place before October 1).
  • September 1 (for events taking place before December 31).
     

Please send your application by e-mail to the LN coordinator before the deadline as a single PDF file named “Your last name_TravelGrant”. The file should include the following:

  • A small motivation letter including your name, as well as the dates, location, detailed schedule and program of the event (or a link to the website of the event if the full program is available there).
  • Your detailed estimated budget (in one page), including registration, travel expenses and accommodation, and clearly stating the total amount requested.
  • For conference participation: Your application can only be considered if you present your work as poster and/or talk. If your abstract is still not accepted by the conference organizers by the time of your application, the abstract and registration details can be sent later, but are required for travel reimbursement!
  • For workshop/course attendance applications: Include your detailed motivation (half a page) in the above-mentioned letter as the travel grant committee needs to know WHY the event is important for your training.

Please note:

  • You will be reimbursed for maximally 1100 CHF when traveling overseas, and 600 CHF for trips within Europe.
  • This money can only be used for:
    • Registration fees
    • Travel expenses in second class (train) or tourist class (plane; if agreed on, please see comment *** below)
    • Hotel at reasonable rates
  • For other expenses (e.g. meals, taxes, or visas), or if you need more than 600 or 1100 CHF, please apply for a second travel grant elsewhere or ask your lab/department to supplement.
  • PhD candidates can only apply ONCE for an LN travel grant during their thesis!
  • Please note that applications from students in the 2nd year of their PhD training and beyond will be preferentially granted.
  • Reimbursement of expenses: Please keep all original receipts (incl. plane boarding passes) and send them together with a certificate of attendance (or similar) to the LNDS coordinator after your journey. Please add credit card or Paypal extracts to prove expenses realized via these non-cash means. If you do room sharing with a colleague/friend, please make this clear in the documents you send.

*** IMPORTANT NOTE: The LNDS can only reimburse travel fees in accordance with the new “Durability” directive of UNIL for professional travel, please the website here. You can find a list of destinations for which airplane travel is only reimbursed under certain conditions here. Basically, these includes ALL European destinations you can reach by train within ~10h … Please check when preparing your LNDS travel grant application and include train insetad of airplane prices if applicable.


After reviewing all applications, the travel grants will be awarded on:

  • December 31
  • April 30
  • September 15
Other sources for obtaining travel grants

Furthermore, the FENS offers NENS training exchange grants for research stays in labs abroad with deadlines on

  • February 15
  • June 15
  • October 15