Eligible students may apply to receive reimbursement for up to $2,000 per academic year toward conference fees, travel, and other expenses associated with presenting their work.

Award Eligibility

All current EP graduate students are eligible to apply to the EP Student Travel Fund except those in the Computer Science, Cybersecurity, and Electrical and Computer Engineering programs, as these programs have their own student travel funds (please contact your program coordinator for more information). Those who apply to the EP Student Travel Fund must meet the following student status requirements and conference presentation criteria:

Student Status Requirements:

  • Student must have full admit status.
  • Student must have successfully completed at least two graduate-level courses for their EP
    program while in full-admit status.
  • Student must be in good academic standing.
  • Student must have an active student status in SIS (e.g., students on a current Leave of Absence or who are inactive are not eligible).

Conference Presentation Criteria:

  • Student must be accepted to present at a scholarly, scientific, or professional conference on work related to their EP program. The work accepted for presentation can be a thesis, capstone, or independent study research for the EP program, or can be from a group or individual project or paper from a class taken for the EP program.
  • Student must be accepted to present at a conference before their EP graduation date.
  • The conference cannot occur after the student’s degree is conferred.
  • Student must acknowledge their EP program in their conference presentation and the
    presentation materials must be reviewed by their EP faculty member, advisor, or program chair.

Travel Fund Application Process

Process Overview

  1. Student must submit the EP Travel Fund Application after the student is accepted to the
    conference.
  2. Student is notified of the application outcome within 21 days of submitting the application.
  3. Student must submit all reimbursement documents no later than 60 days following the
    conference.

Application Deadlines

Students should submit the EP Travel Fund Application in the same academic year as the conference. Applications submitted in the academic year prior to the conference will be held for review until the academic year of the conference. Applications submitted after the conference date will be reviewed as long as the application is submitted no later than 30 days after the last day of the conference. Graduating students are eligible to apply to the travel fund if they are accepted at the conference and attend the conference before their degree conferral date. Graduating students must follow the same reimbursement deadlines as continuing students.

Application Documentation

Students must upload the following documentation to the EP Travel Fund Application:

  • Presentation abstract
  • Conference presentation acceptance letter
  • Faculty support letter (email is acceptable)
  • Program chair approval letter (email is acceptable)

Application Review

EP Travel Fund applications are reviewed once every two weeks on a first-come, first-served basis. If the application has errors or is incomplete, the student will be notified to update the application. The student’s application will not be reviewed until submission is corrected and completed.

Reimbursement Request Process

Upon application approval, EP Travel Fund recipients will receive the Non-employee Expense Reimbursement Form. This must be completed and submitted via email to [email protected] as soon as possible after being awarded travel funds but no later than 60 days after the conference travel expenses were incurred. Students may be reimbursed after their graduation date if they meet the conference presentation criteria.

The Non-employee Expense Reimbursement form must not exceed the maximum award of $2,000. Travel expenses beyond $2,000.00 will not be reimbursed and must be covered by the student or other available source (e.g., employer).

Students who are U.S. citizens may be reimbursed for conference travel to non-U.S. countries. International students may be reimbursed for U.S. conference expenses and conference fees and flight costs of non-U.S. conferences. Students cannot be reimbursed for visa application fees.

For additional information on the JHU travel policy and reimbursement requirements, please visit the following websites:

WSE Travel Policy Information
JHU Travel Policy
JHU Travel Expense Policy Quick Guide

All student reimbursement requests must meet the JHU Travel Policy guidelines for reimbursement.  For any questions about the travel fund policy or EP student travel fund reimbursement requests, please reach out directly to EP Finance ([email protected]).

Visa Information

Students traveling to the U.S. for the purpose of attending a conference typically need a B-1 visa. Johns Hopkins University does not sponsor B-1 visas except when the conference is hosted at Johns Hopkins University.