Introduction

During Phase A, the LSST:UK Science Centre has some funding available to cover travel and subsistence costs¹ resulting from attendance at LSST Science Collaboration meetings (typically, in the USA) by LSST:UK Consortium members not in receipt of travel funding through one of the Phase A grants². Available funds total £91,763 over the four-year duration of the project and it has been agreed, by the LSST:UK Consortium Board that this funding will be allocated in the proportion of 30%, 30%, 20%, and 20% across the four years.

It is assumed that the demand for this funding will outstrip the supply, so all expenses charged to this fund must be pre-approved by the LSST:UK Executive Group.

Questions and comments regarding the fund or the application process may be made to the LSST:UK Project Manager George Beckett or the LSST:UK Project Leader Bob Mann.

¹ Travel costs are claimed back, in the first instance, from an individual's employing institution. As such, the definition of eligible travel costs is determined by the employing institution's policy and implementation of STFC rules. Typically one may claim for incurred costs of travel to/ from the workshop/ meeting, accommodation, subsistence, additional carer cost (e.g. childcare), registration fees, and visa costs. However, for accurate and specific information, one should contact one's institutional finance team (or equivalent).

² You are eligible to apply for support from the pool travel fund so long as you are not named as a directly incurred resource on the Phase A grant, nor are a co-investigator with time charged to the grant.

Applying for support

All applications for financial support for travel must be made using the application form that is available here. Travel funding will be allocated via two means:

• For strategically important meetings that are anticipated to generate significant UK interest in participating, the LSST:UK Executive Committee will agree a number of participants that can be funded and issue a call for applications. The call will be sent out via the LSST:UK email list and will be noted at the top of this page, and results will normally be advised to applicants within one week of the call deadline.
• Other meetings are funded via a responsive mode mechanism. You may apply for support at any time, though you should aim to complete this travel request at least two months in advance of the planned travel. The result of an application is normally advised within two weeks.

Please note that the University of Edinburgh can only reimburse your institution for the same 80% of the total claim for which STFC will reimburse it, so you must ensure that the remaining 20% of the cost of your trip can be met by another source. Please report the full estimated costs in your application, not the 80% cost for which you seek reimbursement from the Travel Fund.

If your proposed attendance relies on a successful application to the LUSC Travel Fund, then you are strongly advised not to purchase any tickets (nor make any financial commitments) until the result of your application for support is confirmed.

Claiming expenses

Claims against the Travel Fund should be made in accordance with the terms circulated by Edinburgh Research and Innovation to all Consortium Board members in October 2015 and reproduced here. The process is summarised below.

In the first instance, you would normally claim back expenses from a local budget (at your home institution) in line with your institution's guidelines for reimbursement of expenses. Your finance team would then send an invoice to the LSST:UK Project Leader Bob Mann, at Edinburgh, for 80% of the incurred expenditure (as is standard for STFC grants), along with a summary of the expenditure items. The expectation is that aggregated claims will be invoiced on a quarterly basis though, in practice and where there are only occasional invoices, it is reasonable to submit as soon as is convenient for the local finance team.

If your finance team require so in order to raise an invoice, Edinburgh University can provide a purchase order. However to do so involves additional administrative effort, so we ask that you only request a purchase order if it is entirely necessary.

Acknowledgements

You should acknowledge any support you receive from the LUSC Travel Fund, in related papers, presentations, and so on. A suggested form of words is "We acknowledge travel support provided by STFC for UK participation in LSST through grant ST/N002512/1".