Studium Generale Grant Fund

The following elements are  requirements for the study trip:

• A study trip must include at least three working days in order to be able to plan sufficient study-related components. Short-term excursions are not taken into consideration. Trips within the Netherlands may also qualify for funding if they involve at least two working days.
• Formulate a clear research question, relevant to your studies. Also make clear how you are going to answer this question and why you need to travel for this purpose. Specify how the participants will be committed in taking an active role in researching this question before and during the trip.
• More than half of the sessions on working days are dedicated to study-related visits.
• Reporting, at least in the form of a short report with the resulting answers to the research question(s). This report can be sent after the study trip, together with a financial report on the budget spent.

The following actions are recommended to make the content of the trip a success:

• A meeting of the participants with an expert on the destination before the trip (preferably Tilburg University scholars);
• Expert guidance by one or more professors during the trip;
• Assignments in the form of an essay or a presentation of several parts of the trip;

Tilburg University is committed to a sustainable society and also challenges you, as organizers of study trips, to make an active contribution in this context. We attach great importance to reducing our mobility carbon footprint. To that end, study trips need to meet the following conditions.

1. For study trip journeys over a distance of up to 500 km and/or less than six hours by train, traveling by public transport is mandatory.
2. Air travel of six or more hours are only eligible for a subsidy if the length of stay is at least seven days (excluding travel days).
3. Every application for subsidy needs to contain a section on sustainability, explaining how you take care that the journey is as sustainable as possible and why certain choices were made.

Tips

• Take the total door-to-door travel time into account. Air travel may seem quicker but it usually isn’t, among other things, because you need to be at the airport well in advance.
• Also for journeys of more than 500 km, cities can be reached in sustainable, comfortable, and time-efficient ways. There are good alternatives to planes and cars.
• There are various ways to compensate carbon emissions.
• Please indicate how you are taking the environment, people, nature, and culture into account. In a practical sense, this means, for instance, no domestic flights, opting for activities that are least harmful to the environment (in other words, don’t go playing golf), etc.

Have you found a good way to travel as sustainably as possible but are you unable to get sufficient funding? Please contact the secretary of the subsidy commission. In special cases, additional subsidy in connection with sustainability is available.

Each participant pays a reasonable amount as their own contribution to the trip. This ‘reasonable amount’ cannot be exactly determined, because this depends on the destination, the length, and the planned activities of the trip. The judgment of the exact amount is considered in the decision-making process of the fund. However, sponsors (and Schools and departments of the University) can be sought to contribute to the study trip. This is often possible when the sponsor’s company in the destination country is visited and an advertisement is included in the travel guide.

Subsidizing study trips is not related to the equity of an association. Point of departure is the individual participant.

The maximal subsidy per participant for traveling within Europe is 75 Euros; for traveling within the Netherlands 50 Euros; for traveling outside of Europe a maximum subsidy of 125 Euros per participant applies. Only Tilburg University students will be granted a subsidy.

NB Outside stay and breakfast no subsidy is granted for dinners and catering.

The request for grants for a study trip should contain the following information:

• A letter with a motivation for the choice of destination;
• A research question: a research question that is clear and relevant to the study. Make clear how this question will be answered/researched. Make it clear that the journey is of value in answering the question. Tell how participants will be committed in taking an active role in researching this question.
• A travel program in half-day periods. More than half of the dayparts on weekdays are filled with study-related activities. The duration of the trip meets the minimum requirements set for the destination;
• A budget with clarification. Please allow for a 5% contingency budget;
• A sustainability paragraph: tell how you will ensure that the trip is as sustainable as possible and why certain choices were made.
• Business details, including the bank account number, name, address, amount of money requested.
• A list of participants with their student numbers (SNR);
• A contingency paragraph: how do you prepare for any contingency? What if someone gets ill? Or if anything else happens? Hope do you make sure the whole group is informed? And in case of an emergency how do you make sure the group knows what to do and that no-one gets lost?

Other applications shall include at least the following information:

• A letter with a motivation for the request (including name, address, bank account number, amount of money requested);
• A description of the activity (what, who, where, when, why);
• A schedule;
• A budget with clarification. Please allow for a 5% contingency budget;
• Business details, including the bank account number, name, address, amount of money requested.

Submit the final request digitally by e-mail to the secretary.

Three times a year the committee reviews applications: in October, February and June.

The deadlines for submitting grant applications are:  Sept. 25, Jan. 29 and May 17 (please note: changed date). Submissions after the deadline are not possible.

If you are preparing a study trip or if you have any other subsidy requests, please contact the Studium Generale Subsidy Fund secretary, Annelieke Koster.

In principle, payment occurs after the activity has taken place and after submission of a realization of expenditure and revenue. (Please note that the realization has the same construction as the budget of the application). If you want to be in possession of the granted funds earlier, you can request a payment advance.