Funding Guidelines   |   Making a Request   |  Distribution of Funds   |   Post-Travel Reports

The Joseph Stanley Leeds Charitable Foundation supports programs that benefit children and young people and have a direct impact on their well-being. Recently, it awarded HMC a $20,000 gift to fund students' travel to conferences and meetings related to their current or upcoming research. 

Faculty members are invited to request funding for student travel. While it is not required that the students supported by the Leeds Fund make presentations at the conferences or meetings they attend, this fund is intended to support conference attendance as part of students’ research experience.

FUNDING GUIDELINES

• The student traveler(s) must be accompanied by a member of the HMC faculty.
• The purpose of travel is to attend an academic conference or meeting concerning topics relevant to research the student(s) has conducted or will conduct.
• Funding may be used for travel expenses, conference registration, lodging and meals, or any combination thereof.
• The travel should take place during the current academic year or subsequent summer. Because it is possible that this grant will be repeated in July 2009, please do not request funding now for travel relating to research that will not begin until summer 2009 unless there is a compelling reason to do so.
• There is no geographic restriction on the location of the proposed travel. However, the funding to be awarded is not expected to exceed $1,000 per student. Our request to the foundation projected that as many as 20 HMC students would benefit from the grant this year.

MAKING A REQUEST

• Please communicate your request to the Dean of Faculty via the designated electronic form, identifying the student(s) involved, the conference or meeting you have in mind, its date and location.
• Please put your request in context: Briefly explain the nature of the research and the student’s involvement, and whether you are able to support travel by other students from other sources—this will not count against your request!

DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS
The Dean of Faculty will acknowledge requests for funding and make decisions as quickly as possible. Dean Cave may work with individual faculty members and departments to achieve a fair and reasonable balance in the distribution of Leeds funding.

POST-TRAVEL REPORTS
Both faculty and student travelers are required to provide brief written reports to the Dean about their conference participation, focusing especially on its impact as a learning experience. There is a strong expectation that these reports be completed and submitted within two weeks of returning.