The travel budget for the Project resides with the Project Management Office. The objective is to provide travel support for planned Project events and to accommodate to the extent possible unplanned, but necessary travel events. The rationale for locating travel funds with the Project Management Office budget rather than with individual investigator budgets was to allow for uniform planning and level of support in the face of difficulties in accurately estimating all expenses in advance. An example of the difficulty is the advent of the NSF Plant Genome Awardees meeting. Responsibility for travel support to this meeting was given to the individual projects well after their budgets were set. Another example of the uncertainties is the support for Advisory Committee participation. The budgets were set well before the actual number of advisors was known.
The events for which travel is supported are listed below. Because of the difficulties of anticipating all costs of all events, full support for all these listed events will be beyond the budgeted funds. It is incumbent on Project personnel, especially investigators, to take advantage of all other possible sources of travel support that could also serve the purposes of Project events and to exercise economy for all expenses.
Note: It is recognized that some PIs employ Project personnel in technician job titles, but the employee is filling a Project role of a postgraduate researcher, postdoc, or even grad student in duties or responsibilities. These persons would be eligible for the travel support, especially if the PI does not employ any persons as grad students or postdocs on Project funds. The key issues for support are, first, that the person is a Project employee, and, second, that the person has an academic interest or role in the project. It is not likely that more than two employees per PI can be supported.
Examples are delivery of libraries, troubleshooting bioinformatics or mapping issues, unanticipated meetings of subsets of Project personnel, or justified presence or presentation by some specialist not on the Project, but with expertise required by the Project. Any need for such travel support must be brought to the attention of the Project Management Office in advance of the event. Support for such unanticipated travel will be limited.
One component of the budget is reserved for support of training of Project postdocs and graduate students in techniques and technology featured at only one or a few Project sites. Examples are DNA library construction at Tim Close’s lab, UC Riverside and sequencing technology at Olin Anderson’s lab, USDA-ARS-WRRC, Albany.
The Project Management Office must follow the travel reimbursement policies and procedures of its accounting office, the University of California, Davis Accounting Office. These are standard policies and procedures that must be very similar to those at any other public university or government agency and, thus, should be familiar to all PIs and other personnel. In particular, our procedure is designed to reimburse individuals for expenses they have incurred. In general, you should expect to provide original receipts documenting those expenses. A summary of the UC Davis Travel Reimbursement Policy may be viewed at this web site.
In advance, or at the event, the traveler will be provided with a Travel Voucher Worksheet on which to record detailed information about the trip and event. All the information requested on the Worksheet is necessary, any omissions will slow the reimbursement process. In addition, the Worksheet must be signed by the traveler authorizing the reimbursement and vouching for the accuracy of the expenses. If multiple pages are necessary, each must be signed in the space provided.
No later than 21 days after the travel event, the Traveler Voucher Worksheet and original receipts documenting expenses must be submitted to the Project Management Office, which will process the reimbursement resulting in a check mailed to the individual submitting the information. Normal turn-around time from our receipt of the Worksheet and receipts to traveller’s receipt of the check is about two to three weeks. Things which will delay this are delays in traveler’s submission of the Worksheet, incomplete Worksheets, missing receipts, and exceptional circumstances such as late request to reimburse a third party.
Transportation. Original receipts are required, except for shuttle-type ground transportation expenses that individually are less than $75.00. Note: Traveler may not be reimbursed for ticketless airfare expenses unless one of the following is submitted: an original itinerary/ confirmation, a written receipt (requested by traveler at the airport), or a passenger receipt coupon (requested by traveler when making reservations). Note: Reimbursement for surface transportation cost in lieu of air travel may not exceed the air coach rate (or lowest published tariff where air coach is not available) plus connecting fares for equivalent travel. Extra costs of food and lodging while in transit via surface transportation in lieu of air travel may not be reimbursed.
Lodging. Hotel, motel, bed & breakfast expenses. Original receipt is required for all lodging expenses, no matter the cost. Note: Since hotel receipts may include charges that are not reimbursable, traveler may not be reimbursed for lodging expenses unless the receipt itemizes charges, e.g., taxes, room charge, telephone, etc.
Meals and incidentals. Out-of-pocket, direct expenses only are to be reimbursed up to these daily ceilings: breakfast, $7.00; lunch, $12.00; dinner, $20.00; incidentals, $7.00. While receipts are not required, claimed amounts will be compared to these limits. It is not the Project’s policy to pay a fixed per diem. For a trip lasting more than one day, the total of the daily amounts may not be averaged for the duration of the trip.
Miscellaneous expenses. On some occasions (e.g., the Annual Project Meeting) associated expenses, such as PAG registration, will be covered. An official receipt for registration costs is required.
In this event, the traveler may file a Declaration of Lost Evidence Form. Contact the Project Management Office to obtain the form as soon as possible after you realize a receipt is missing.
As noted above, those procedures are designed to reimburse individuals for expenses incurred by them. If a third party has paid for any costs that should be reimbursed, this must be handled in a different manner and needs to be cleared in advance by the Project Management Office. Examples include using a department vehicle initially charged to some other funds or using an airline ticket purchased initially by another account. Please contact the Project Management Office if you anticipate such arrangements and if you have any other travel-related questions.