College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences > Student Resources > Graduate Research

Graduate Research

The college supports the research, scholarship, and creative work of graduate students through its Graduate Research Fund (GRF). The GRF helps defray the cost of conducting research and creative work closely related to one's program of study and for presenting papers at academic conferences through a competitive process. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, but must be received no later than 30 days prior to your departure.

All expenses must abide by DePaul and LAS policy and procedure. This now includes the requirement that all students must register international and non-local domestic overnight travel related to one's activities at DePaul. Because the GRF does not fund local travel, the policy requires that any applicant to the GRF for any purpose must first complete travel registration. Please review instructions and links to registration processes included in the Guidelines document referenced below.

Questions about allowable expenses—after careful review of the Guidelines and FAQs below—should be directed to one's faculty sponsor. LAS reserves the right to deny any expenses, even after submitted, if they do not adhere to the requirements covered in the Guidelines and FAQs.

Past GRF recipients can be viewed here.

View Guidelines

Yes. Compliance differs depending on whether you are traveling to a destination in the US or abroad. Students planning travel outside the United States must complete Independent Student Travel Registration and submit evidence of registration within the application. Please note: This link will take you to a page with Study Abroad branding because most international travel at DePaul is managed by the Study Abroad program; ignore the branding, and complete the registration process with the understanding that you are registering for travel funded by the GRF, not Study Abroad. Students who will travel domestically must submit the Travel Release and Waiver, and submit that signed form within the application.Applications lacking the appropriate evidence of travel registration will not be processed.

All expenses must abide by DePaul and LAS policy and procedure. They are also required to have a direct DePaul business purpose and correlation to the academic portion of the travel. If you have questions about allowability of expenses pertaining to DePaul or LAS policy, please ask your faculty sponsor. LAS reserves the right to deny any expenses, even after submitted, if they do not adhere to the aforementioned requirements.

  1. Expenses must be submitted for reimbursement within 60 days of the last date of travel. Please plan accordingly when deciding upon the appropriate application cycle.
  2. Funds are usually obtained via reimbursement with original or scanned/emailed receipts. Students should anticipate paying first and being reimbursed after their trip. Further information on the process will be provided in the award letter.
  3. Upon submission for reimbursement, the student must provide receipts and not confirmation. For example, a hotel confirmation indicating the price is not an acceptable reimbursement document. The student must submit the receipt provided upon checkout that indicates a zero balance.
  4. The reimbursement must be made to the person that incurred the charge. If another person besides the student pays the expense, that person will be reimbursed directly. Please provide their DePaul ID or SSN and mailing address. For example, if a student’s partner or parent pays the ticket on their credit card, we will send them the money. We can submit multiple reimbursement requests if needed.
  5. Convert all receipts into US dollars prior to submission for reimbursement. Please use https://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/. If your receipt is in foreign currency, please write the USD amount on the receipt. With your reimbursement submission, include a printed copy of a one-to-one conversion. For example, documentation showing one GPB to one USD.

In the case of financial difficulty and inability to pre-pay expenses, please notify Erica Godfrey (EGODFRE1@depaul.edu) PRIOR to submitting an application.

A budget and budget narrative are required. Without both of these pieces of information, your application will be denied with no option to resubmit. Your narrative should explain why you made your selections. For example, did you select the hotel because it was attached to the conference location? If you are renting a car, why must you do so? If you are visiting a library or archive, why is it necessary to your research? It must also capture any extenuating circumstances. For example, if your flights span dates outside the conference because you decide to stay longer, you should include the reason as to why that is the case and the research you did to ensure there was no large difference in pricing. Are you sharing a room with a fellow student or splitting other costs? Are you starting your trip from another location and why (home for the summer, year abroad, etc.)? The committee will use your budget narrative to fill in information on any questions and concerns they have about your application.

The GRF usually pays for the following types of expenses:

Airfare to/from the current location of the student to the location of the conference or archive
  • The airfare must be from the current home base of the student.
  • For example, if the student is home from the summer and flying from New York, we will only pay to/from NY. Also, if the student is studying abroad for the year in Rome, and the conference is in Germany, we will only pay for the ticket to/from Rome to Germany. We will not pay for the international ticket taking the student to Rome
  • Any tickets that do not originate/end in Chicago should have further explanation in the budget narrative, or they will be denied. We reserve the right to alter the amount based on the DePaul business purpose for funding
Lodging
  • The GRF will fund lodging one night prior and one night after academic conferences, not exceeding a total of five nights. If there are extenuating circumstances (long international travel, longer conference, limited flights, etc), you may ask for more time, but must capture it in the budget narrative for the committee to consider.
  • For archival research, the GRF will fund up to five days of lodging, but you must be able to demonstrate research activity on each of those days.
Registration fees (this includes conferences held in Chicagoland)
Admission and archival fees (also includes research in Chicagoland)
Ground transportation (not authorized for Chicagoland area)
  • To/from local airport
  • To/from lodging
  • Transportation within the city that pertains to business. We will not pay for all ground transportation, only those specific to the academic work being done.
  • If a student is traveling by rental car, car rental with receipts for tolls and gas is an allowable expense. If the student is using their own car, mileage can be reimbursed by providing a map with directions and miles (Google maps/MapQuest) as documentation. Mileage is calculated with the University allowance (58 cents per mile in 2019) and includes gas and tolls. Further car-travel receipts do not have to be provided when reimbursing mileage. Please note car travel is only allowed when it is the most financially viable option. Otherwise, a portion of the travel will be reimbursed.
Fees charged for photocopying archived materials on research trips.

The GRF does not pay for the following:

Travel or lodging to/from locations in the Chicagoland area.*
Place-based research trips exceeding five days total. The GRF is not a source of support for projects that require extended stays in locations outside Chicago. For this reason, and because GRF money is finite, students and faculty are strongly advised not to compose a project dependent on university funds for completion.
Attendance at a conference at which the student is not presenting
Books
Meals and incidentals
Technology purchases
Purchases made with points, mileage or rewards

*Students attending a conference or conducting research within the City of Chicago and surrounding area may request payment for conference registration or research fees. Local travel costs are not reimbursed. Exceptions will be made in the case of late night travel in which students should consider taking a taxi or Uber/Lyft for safety purposes. Please note this exception on the receipt or in the application.

To apply for the GRF you must complete the following steps:

  1. Complete travel registration, requesting that verification of registration be directed to the LAS Dean’s Office, c/o Peter Vandenberg, Executive Associate Dean.
  2. Complete the General Application on the DePaul Online Scholarship Application website.
    1. Log into the DePaul Online Scholarship Application using your Campus Connect ID and password.
    2. Complete and submit the General Application.
      1. Your General Application will be marked with a green checkmark to indicate that it has been completed and submitted successfully.
      2. If it is gray, the application was not submitted successfully; try again.
  3. After submitting the General Application, you will automatically be routed to opportunities for which you qualify. For this award, you are specifically looking for the LAS Graduate Research Funding opportunity. Please note, this is not a need-based award, therefore you do not have to complete a FAFSA to be considered.
  4. If you are recommended for additional scholarships, you will be able to view a list of opportunities. Apply for them by clicking on the blue “Apply” button beside each scholarship. Additional questions or information may be required to complete the application process.
  5. Acceptance will not come through the online system. Rather, it will be awarded via email.

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