Overview
GridPP funds will be used to support travel,
up to a predetermined annual maximum, in direct support of its programme of work in the following areas:
a) Conferences and workshops;
b) GridPP Collaboration meetings;
c) Management meetings;
d) Other travel directly relevant to GridPP activities.
Support is available to people directly funded by GridPP and to other people
in connection with GridPP activities when appropriate.
Forms for travel (visit notice), requesting an advance, final claim and associated guidance notes are available
here.
All claims should normally be submitted within 4 weeks of completion of the visit.
Guidelines
UK travel: No advanced notice is
required for UK travel. Claims are based on actual receipts.
If, however, you intend to make arrangements through the RAL travel office,
then a visit notice will be needed.
International Travel:
(a) For trips of duration of < 2 weeks, the “Purpose of
Visit” box on the visit form should be used to very briefly justify the
visit. In some instances it may be necessary to back this with an
explanatory email to the UK travel budget holder.
(b) Only exceptionally will a second trip of duration between 1 and 2
weeks be permitted by an individual within a month of a previous trip
to the same location. A special case should be made in
advance to the UK travel budget holder in such a situation as to why
this is necessary.
(c) GridPP funded staff are expected only rarely to be making overseas
trips of more than 2 weeks. Such trips require a strong case to be made
justifying the travel, and may be referred to the PMB for approval.
GridPP would not normally expect to fund other staff for such trips.
However, if a very strong case is made, part-funding could be allowed
up to a maximum of 50%, again with possible referral to the PMB and
discussion with the relevant experiment budget holder.
(d) Attendance to meetings where the scope is wider than Grid will be
supported in cases where the attendee expects to spend in excess of 60%
of the visit on grid related matters. (e.g. attendance at experiment
specific collaboration weeks).
(e) Systems administration staff wishing to attend an overseas experiment
meeting should first make a case justifying the visit. It is anticipated
that such attendance would normally be limited to a small number of people
from GridPP on each occasion.
(f) It is not anticipated that travel longer than 3 months will be
supported by GridPP.
Workshop & Conference Support: A
paragraph case, based on active participation and anticipated value to GridPP, should be sent in advance to the UK travel budget holder. A costing estimate should be included. In situations where either the costs or demand is
high, participation may be limited to those presenting papers, organizing
sessions or similar activities.
UK Grid Workshops: Proposals for
funding to set up a grid workshop in the UK should be submitted to the PMB.
Exclusions
GridPP is not able to support travel for
students. Applications for such support should be made through the usual
research council studentship channels.
GridPP is not normally able to support costs
of attending training courses, summer schools, etc. However,
in some cases where direct links exist (e.g. the EGEE Training Courses) a
reasonable level of support should be forthcoming. In such cases an
explanatory email explaining the relevance, estimated costs, etc should be
sent to the UK travel budget holder prior to submitting a visit notice.
It should be noted that the non-GridPP
e-Science posts from SR2002 have an associated travel budget and are not
normally expected to apply for GridPP travel funds.
General
For any travel not covered by, or in exception
to, the above policy, a justification of up to 1-page should be sent to the
PMB where it will be considered at the following weekly meeting.
Please also note that visit notices are
required in good time before the actual trip to allow for completion
of approval. Only in very, very rare exceptions should a notice be last
minute !
This policy will be kept under review and will accordingly be updated from time to time. GridPP reserves the right at any time to invoke additional guidelines and restrictions in order to maintain consistency with GridPP goals or to remain within allocated budgets. Please check before making travel arrangements. Any questions arising from this policy should be addressed to the UK travel budget holder in the first instance.
[ Revision 1.0 - 27th April 2004 ]
[ Revision 1.1 - 20th July 2004 ]
[ Revision 1.2 - 16th May 2005 ]
[ Revision 1.3 - 8th September 2005 ]
[ Revision 1.4 - 14th November 2005 ]
Revision 1.5 - 26th June 2007.