Each year, the Harvard Griffin GSAS Student Council (GSC) awards up to $750 to individual Harvard Griffin GSAS students for the purposes of conference travel and attendance. We have two application cycles this year—one in the fall term and one in the spring term—and you are welcome to apply for each one. Applications are, however, very competitive, so please review this document carefully to ensure your application is as strong as possible.
In this document, we’ll be covering:
- Purpose and Scope
- Due Dates
- Eligibility
- Selection Process and Criteria
- Application Process
- Receiving the Grant (for Awardees)
- Final Comments
Purpose and Scope
The purpose of this grant is primarily to support Harvard Griffin GSAS students’ degree completion, and secondarily to support their career development, by reducing financial barriers for them to attend conferences, professional development events, and networking opportunities.
Expenses that this grant covers include registration fees, membership fees (if it helps reduce overall cost), travel, lodging, and printing. Food is not typically covered under this grant, although exceptions for extenuating circumstances will be considered. Other types of expenses not mentioned here may be covered if there is sufficiently good reason.
Due Dates
There are two application cycles in the 2025-2026 academic year, the deadlines for which are:
- Fall: September 18, 2026 - Apply Here!
- Fall Faculty Reference Form can be found here
- Spring: February 19, 2027 - Check back in the spring!
Applicants must submit their application either before the conference takes place or within 180 days after the start of the conference.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the GSC Conference Grant, you must:
- Be enrolled full-time in a Harvard Griffin GSAS Degree Granting Program OR
- Be enrolled full-time in the Harvard Griffin GSAS Special Students/Visiting Fellows Program OR
- Be on Traveling Scholar status (page 73 in the Handbook for Students)
Students who have received GSC funding in the past are welcome to apply, although preference will be given to students who have not received GSC funding before.
Selection Process and Criteria
The selection committee for this grant is chaired by the GSC chair of support (gscsupport@fas.harvard.edu) and additionally comprises two Harvard Griffin GSAS deans, one faculty member, and one Council member at large. The members of the committee may vary from round to round.
The selection committee’s primary considerations in awarding Conference Grants are twofold. First, the importance of the conference to the student’s degree or career. An ideal applicant is presenting dissertation research at a venue where they can receive substantive feedback and make meaningful professional connections that will help them advance their research and/or apply for jobs. While this naturally favors later-career graduate students, we are also happy to support earlier-stage PhD students who are attending conferences to develop their dissertation topics and master’s students who can make a strong case for how attending the conference will support their career development. It is important to describe the relevance of this conference to your research clearly; please bear in mind that the selection committee consists of non-experts and tailor your description to a lay audience.
Second, applications should demonstrate a strong need for funding. Because we receive more worthy applications than we can fund, we highly prioritize applicants who demonstrate that they are unable to attain the academic goals laid out in their application without resorting to personal finances. Please list the sources of conference funding that you have looked into, and explain why they cannot meet your needs. Typical sources of funding include a student’s department, advisor, research institute, external fellowship, conference or professional associations and the GSAS Professional Development Fund.
To fund as many applications as possible, the Committee expects you to take efforts to minimize the size of their request. This includes comparing available options (e.g., attending conferences virtually vs. in person, taking a bus rather than a flight if the conference is not too far away), not trying to add unnecessary costs to meet the maximum request amount, and providing exact amounts rather than rounding up.
Finally, the Committee also takes into account other factors outside of the individual applications such as departmental funding, the academic representation within the applicant pool, and so on.
Application Process
A complete application comprises the following items:
- A completed application on Engage (Access Spring Application here)
- A recommendation form from a Harvard faculty. To submit a Faculty Reference Form, please email your advisor the following links:
During the application, you will be asked to provide details regarding your request. This includes a detailed breakdown of each expense (add as many rows as needed), which requires four things: category, description, amount, and evidence. Instructions for each are below.
- Category. For this field, choose one of the following: Registration fee, Membership fee, Printing, Travel, Lodging, Other
- Description. Include a short but clear description of the cost.
- Amount. How much the breakdown item costs.
- Evidence. Evidence for the cost of the item. This is often a URL (e.g., a page showing registration fees for the conference), but if the evidence you’re presenting is a PDF or image (e.g., email receipt for flight booking), include it in your supporting documents and write “Supporting documents.”
Once you have completed the detailed breakdown of your request, add up the amounts and enter the total amount of funding requested.
You will be asked to optionally submit any supporting documents. These are PDFs or images that serve as evidence for various costs or your participation in the conference, such as if you have been accepted to speak or present. If you have multiple, documents, combine them into a single PDF before submitting them (here is an online tool for combining multiple PDFs). If you don’t have any supporting documents, skip this step.
At the end of the application, you will be asked to provide one reference. References are to come from people who are experts in your field and can speak to the quality and relevance of your work. As such, it is highly recommended that they have reviewed any papers or posters you're planning on presenting. References must be affiliated with Harvard and will need to sign in to engage in order to fill out the reference form. Make sure to fill out the referrer's name, email address, organization, and relationship to you.
References are due seven days after the original application deadline.
Receiving the Grant (for Awardees)
Please expect 3-5 weeks for the grant to be processed through our system.
As of Fall 2020, students can opt-in to receive their GSC Conference Grant funding through direct deposit. This is done through linking Zelle to a US bank account in the Harvard University Supplier Portal. Students can opt-in to this process when they apply to GSC Conference Grants. If funds are awarded, the Harvard Griffin GSAS Student Center will reach out with instructions to complete this set up. The set-up needs to be done before the grant is processed, otherwise the fund will arrive in a paper check form. Questions: contact the GSC Treasurer (gsctreasurer@fas.harvard.edu) and the Harvard Griffin GSAS Student Center (stucenter@fas.harvard.edu) or reach out on Slack.
We hope that most applicants will choose to opt-in to the direct deposit method. If and only if you do not choose to opt-in to the direct deposit method outlined above, you must submit a Funding Request Form in order to receive your award (Please reach out to gsctreasurer@fas.harvard.edu for the form). Generally, the GSC Treasurer will process your form, and you will receive a check in the mail 4-6 weeks from when the Treasurer processes your form. Exceptionally, this cycle, the form will not be processed until mid-January. Thus, if you submit your application early enough, you could ideally receive funding before you have to pay for conference expenses. Please direct related questions to the GSC Treasurer (gsctreasurer@fas.harvard.edu).
Students have 6 months from the date their grant award email from GSC to claim their funds. This means that students must complete filling out a budget request, Buy2Pay processes, corresponding with the Harvard Griffin GSAS Student Center Team or any other means to process the funding by that date. If students do not take these steps to receive their funds, the award is rescinded and payments will not be made.
Checks issued to students in any capacity will expire in 6 months. Checks that are not deposited within 6 months will NOT be reissued
If you have issues with Harvard's Buy2Pay portal used to process every student grant, you may need to work with the Student Center Team or contact the JAGGER Customer Service Team.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Am I eligible to apply?
Please refer to the above Eligibility section. - Can a student receive more than one GSC Conference Grant?
Students can receive a maximum of one conference grant and one summer research grant in their time as a GSAS student. - Can conference funds be received in advance of attending the conference?
Yes! - Can a student apply for reimbursement after attending a conference?
Yes! A student may apply for funding either before the conference takes place or after the conference has taken place within 200 days of the beginning of the conference. The GSC strongly encourages applicants to plan ahead and to try to secure funding in advance of their conference. - Who chooses the grant recipients?
The selection committee is chaired by the GSC chair of support (gscsupport@fas.harvard.edu) and additionally comprises two Harvard Griffin GSAS deans, one faculty member, and one Council member at large. The members of the committee may vary from round to round. - When will I hear about decisions?
The GSC Conference Grant Selection Committee meets within 2-3 weeks of the application deadline to award grants. Applicants are generally notified of the decisions of the committee immediately after the committee has met. - How competitive are the Conference Grants?
The number of applicants varies year to year and cycle to cycle. The application dates are new this year, but in past years the success rate ranges between 1:3 and 1:5.
Further questions? Reach out to gscsupport@fas.harvard.edu!