"Why are you requesting funds at this moment" question in forms

[Adelaide9216]

Hello,

I will be applying for a few travel grants for a conference I'll be attending in August. In a lot of these forms, they are asking things like "Why do you need money from us" and what should I answer other than "it will lessen the financial burden of this trip"?

[TakeruK]

Yes, you should be a little more specific.

Follow the instructions from the funding agency. If no further instructions are provided, then I would suggest:

1. Describe all existing avenues of funding available to you and explain why you still need to apply to this funding source. Starting small and moving outwards, these funding avenues may be: your advisor, your department, your grad student organization, your university, and any other national sources (e.g. your profession's society).

For these things, you should say whether or not the funding source exists and how much money (if any) have been committed from that source for this trip.

If you will not be able to attend solely due to funding if you are not successful with these travel grants, then mention that.

If this trip is exceptional in expense compared to what funding you can typically get, then mention it too. I think I remember you saying you were going to a conference in Europe. That's generally much more expensive and it's reasonable to request extra funds to help cover the extra costs.

2. Describe how attending this conference will have an important impact for your professional and career development. Be clear in how important this conference is! Make sure you emphasize that you are presenting at the conference. If you have an invited presentation and not just a "contributed" presentation, then say that too (but know that you won't need to be invited in order to get funding!) [if this hasn't already been asked elsewhere]

3. It would be a good idea to do a brief itemization of all expected expenses and sources of funding, to show the deficit or "need".

In general, these funding agencies want to know that they are providing money to someone that is 1) in need of it and 2) can make a big difference in their careers. Each agency may have different goals, but the general gist is that people donated money (or the agency has secured money) in order to support early career people who would make a good contribution but otherwise cannot attend.

Having the above information helps them determine how to best spend their money to support all the applicants. Depending on the organization and their resources, it might mean that they would prefer to support someone with absolutely no means to attend at all vs. someone who has already secured 80% of the funding. Sometimes the process is based on merit, especially if the funding source is the conference itself! But often the travel grant organizations are funding a wide range of things and they don't have the expertise to judge merit across disciplines, so it could be more need-based than anything else.