Managing Your GSF Grant

• Funding may be used to cover travel and meeting costs to facilitate international projects and collaboration. This includes economy-class airfare, lodging and meals, local transportation, meeting facilities, food and logistics.
• Grants may cover up to 75% of the U.S. Department of State maximum per diem rate for the proposed travel abroad plus a reasonable estimate of the economy-class airfare.
• For travel to MIT, applicants are eligible for up to $350 per day in expenses, plus economy-class airfare.

Funding may not be used for the following:

• Research-related supplies or equipment
• Salary and/or fringe benefits of any personnel
• Conference and registration fees
• Faculty, staff or students from other institutions (not noted in the proposal)
• Funds are not intended to be used for long-term stays (over two months) abroad or at MIT.*
• Funds may not be used to cover MIT Visiting Student fees.* However,
  • Students whose Visiting Student appointment duration is less than 5 weeks will have the visiting student fees waived
  • Students may visit MIT for three weeks or less without applying for Visiting Student status
• Funding should not be used for graduate students’ dissertation field work

* An exception: MIT-Italy Seed Funds may be used to cover long-term stays at MIT and the MIT Visiting Student fees.

The funds granted should be used according to what has been outlined in your proposal. Major modifications of the budget allocations during the project are not recommended but minor changes can be approved in coordination with relevant MISTI Seed Fund Manager.

No. These funds may not be used to cover equipment.

No, funds may not be used to pay student or employee salaries.

No, funds may not be used to cover salaries, even to help organize a conference or meeting. Additionally, funds cannot be used for conference registration costs.

No, funds may not be used to cover materials.

Funds will be transferred to the MIT PI participating in the collaboration who will disburse them according to the budget. The MIT PI's department will be responsible for any travel reports related to the seed fund.

The department representative responsible for managing the seed fund grant should process reimbursements for the international collaborator(s).

There are two ways to reimburse a collaborator:

1. The MIT grantee should collect itemized receipts from the international collaborators and use them to create an expense report in Concur. After the expense report is finished, contact Travel to arrange an international wire transfer. You will need the following information from the collaborators to make the wire transfer:

• Full name
• Home address
• Bank name
• Bank address (of the branch s/he uses)
• Account number
• Bank’s SWIFT code

Program Managers do not process reimbursements for grant awardees.

2. Request a per diem: To travel domestically on a per diem basis, you must first get approval from your department head, laboratory director, or project supervisor.  Once you have departmental approval, you must then submit your request to VPF Travel and Card Services for final approval.  More information can be found here.

No, funds may not be used to cover publication costs.

No. Funds can only be used for collaborators identified in the original proposal who are either MIT faculty, researchers or students or international collaborating team faculty, researchers or students. Significant post-award proposal changes including changes to the team members require that MISTI is notified and funds returned.

MISTI recommends that MIT grantees pay for the MIT employee and student airfare, housing and meals with their own MIT travel or departmental card. When the trip is complete, close out the transactions in Concur.

MISTI recommends that MIT grantees pay for the international collaborator’s airfare, housing and meals with their own MIT travel or departmental card. It is possible to give visitors a stipend for their trip. When the trip is complete, close out the transactions in Concur. If you have questions, please contact the Travel department.

No, you cannot use funds to pay for a business or first class ticket, even if a leg of your flight is over 6 hours. If you still want to book a business or first class ticket, you will have to charge the extra funds to another account. You should check with the Travel department with any questions on how to process this transaction in Concur.

Yes, funds can be used to pay for visa applications.

Yes, as long as the conference is relevant to the topic and approved by the MISTI Seed Fund Manager. This should only be a minimal portion of the budget.

Additional international Insurance is no longer necessary for MIT students, faculty or staff. Funds can be used to pay for insurance for visiting collaborators and students.

You are responsible for ensuring that students register with MISTI here.

Find the PDF for MIT Safety Checklist for Students 2023-2024 here.

Leading a student trip abroad? Learn the vital tips you need to know before you go.

Watch the Tips for Trip Leaders video here.

Here is a checklist for Faculty traveling through Global Seed Funds.

Funds awarded aim to support the collaboration between MIT faculty and faculty from around the world. Usage of funds for domestic travel is discouraged, but is possible under the following conditions:

1. Approved as part of the initial award application
2. Funds are being used to fund a meeting/s between MIT faculty or students and the co-applicant global partner and are less than 5% of the total budget

Funds cannot be used for domestic travel :

1. To travel to present at a domestic conference (unless the co-applicant international collaborator is also present)
2. To travel to meet non co-applicants

MISTI does not facilitate the logistics related to visiting faculty from abroad. Inquiries about bringing a visiting scholar, visiting professor, postdoc or other researcher should be directed to the HR administrator in your specific department, lab or center headquarters as appointments at MIT are initiated by individual departments and the International Scholars Office works with a contact person in each department.

• International Scholars Office (ISchO) website

MISTI does not facilitate the logistics related to visiting students from abroad. Inquiries about bringing visiting students should be directed to the advisor in the International Students Office.

• International Students Office (ISO) website

Grantees are required to complete a final report at the end of the grant period. Grantee should be available to give a short presentation at a CIS-organized event or a provide a brief summary of results for the CIS website, if requested. 

We recommend reviewing these sites for additional funding opportunities:

• Funding Databases available to the MIT Community

In any publications that result from your GSF project, please acknowledge the GSF fund and the country program (e.g. ULVAC-Hayashi MISTI Seed Fund, MIT-Japan Program) in addition to MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI). When appropriate please include links to MISTI, the fund, and country program page.