Background

The Sandford Fleming Travel Awards were initiated to assist in the support of students presenting scholarly papers at academic conferences. It was the original intent that these would be used for travel for which other support did not exist.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of requests for travel support which do not fall directly into this category. In order to meet these requests and to assist applicants in preparing their requests, this document has been prepared to describe the categories of grant requests which may be considered, and the format of the request.

Grant Types

There are four general categories of grant requests which may be considered:

1. Conference Presentations (Max $1,000)

This is the original travel grant, intended to support an undergraduate student attending a conference at which a technical paper is to be presented. In all cases this includes a significant amount of preparation for the presentation. An application for this grant should include the abstract of the work submitted for presentation as well as the authorship; a brief one paragraph description of your contribution; confirmation of acceptance for presentation; how the work to be presented/contribution relates to your studies; and a brief justification of the amount being requested.

2. Conference Registration (Max. $100)

A number of academic conferences provide fairly inexpensive student registration fees. This grant is intended to assist students in covering their registration fees. It is expected that conferences will have a significant academic or scholarly component. An application for this grant should include a brief one paragraph description of the relevance of this conference to your studies; an indication of the "quality" of the conference; and a brief justification of the amount being requested.

3. Technical (Individual and Team) Projects (Max. $1,000 per team/$250 per individual)

In a number of cases, students have an opportunity to apply some aspect of a technical project at a remote location. In most cases, this project would be based on the work associated with some course project; however it may also stem from the participation in student teams. An application for this grant should include, a brief one paragraph description of your project/contribution, how this contribution relates to your studies, an indication of other support for your travel needs; and a brief justification of the amount being requested. In the case applications are from student teams, a brief description of how this student team enhances the engineering undergraduate experience should be included.

4. Non-Academic Professional Conferences (Max. $100 per person)

In each granting cycle (see below) a very small number of "professional" conference requests may be considered if the funding has not been completely allocated to the previous categories. Non-academic conferences will only be considered for funding if there is evidence of Faculty or Departmental financial support. In such cases, the application should include: a description of the purpose of the conference (with emphasis on its professional content), an indication of the anticipated costs, a clear statement of where the other funding is coming from; and a brief justification of the amount being requested.

Application Process

There is no official 'form' for travel grants. A cover letter describing the grant being applied for, the amount being requested, and who will be the beneficiary of the grant, should be addressed to the Sandford Fleming Foundation (SFF) Office Manager and delivered to that person, in person at the SFF Office, or electronically.

In addition to the cover letter the application must also include the name(s) of the applicant(s); a contact telephone number, address, and valid engmail e-mail address for each (co-) applicant; a description of the event; the time/date and location of the event; projected costs for the entire activity; and other sources of funding applied for and/or received; as well as the specific information required by the description of 4 different categories above. The academic status of each (co-)applicant must also be included. Only students registered between 1A and 4B (in Engineering) reporting on work carried out while at the University will be considered for grants. The only exception to this is that 4B students who request funds for conferences after May of their graduation year will be considered if the work was submitted prior to graduation. All grant applications should also be supported by a letter from a University of Waterloo faculty member endorsing the application.

For all grants, two forms of student feedback are required. The first is a letter to the Sandford Fleming Foundation (SFF) Office Manager detailing how the money awarded was spent. The second may be in the form of an Iron Warrior article, a presentation at one of the professional societies, or simply a written account of the event and how the travel scholarship helped get you there. A copy of this second form of feedback (article, presentation or written account) should also be sent to the Sandford Fleming Foundation (SFF) Office Manager, as it will be used to publicize this grant for future students.

Granting Cycle

Although the number of grants received per term is fairly light, it is best if they are processed at one time. As a result, all granting decisions will be made in the first week of the third month of each term. Applications received after this cut-off will be considered (if still applicable) during the following term.