Guidelines for travel grant applications
Applications for a travel grant from The GCRI Trust should be made to David Fox at david.fox@gcritrust.co.uk. Please entitle the e-mail ‘GCRI Trust Travel Grant request’.
Applications for individual travel grants should consist of a Word document (1-3 pages) outlining:
- Details of the person making the application (e.g. student, researcher, position in organisation etc.)
- Description of organisation (university, research institute, consultant, etc)
- Research, development and crop interests and experience
- Current research and development projects
- Details of purpose of travel (conference, study tour, etc)
- What you will be doing during visit (e.g. giving a conference presentation)
- How this travel will help your work and how it will benefit UK horticulture
- Approximate details of costs of the travel including: Major travel costs (e.g. flight), Minor travel costs (connecting travel; taxi, bus etc.), Accommodation, Conference fees and other costs incurred.
Applications for tertiary student Group visits should give:
- Details of the College or Other Organisation making the application
- Details of person leading the Group Visit including position in the Organisation
- Itinerary of proposed visit and number of students in Group
- Details of travel costs etc
The GCRI Trust has two calls for applications per year (March and September) and also processes applications on a rolling basis if finances and time allow.
Successful applicants will be notified by e-mail. After the travel visit, reimbursement of the travel costs will require the submission of a Travel Report, which will be made available on this website.
Guidelines for travel reports
After the travel visit, reimbursement of the travel costs will require the submission of a Travel Grant Report, which will be made available to view on the GCRI website.
PLEASE NOTE:
- It should be remembered that the GCRI Trust Travel Grant scheme aims to progress the UK Protected Crops and Outdoor Ornamentals Sector. Where a visit is broad in its vision, (eg. 6th World Biological Control Congress) the recipient should look for and report on highlights relevant to future applications under UK’s protected cropping and outdoor ornamentals systems.
- These are new Guidelines for the reporting of GCRI Trust Travel Grants. They have been written to generate reports which can be reviewed and digested readily by busy people – growers, consultants, researchers. Please follow these Guidelines rather than using other reports as a template.
Your Travel Grant Report should be sent to the Secretary (address below), usually within three months of your return, and should be of good quality with a minimum of 800 words.
Guidelines for writing your Travel Grant Report
Title: Conference/study tour description (eg. BOPA Study Tour to Kenya to investigate novel irrigation regimes)
Date of Travel: (eg. 1-8 January 2017)
Name of GCRI Travel Grant Recipient: (eg. Dr F Bloggs, DFB Consulting Ltd.)
Headline bullet points: These bullet points (between 1-5 as guidance) should be written to flag up key grower-relevant highlights that will encourage a reader to continue exploring the report. The bullet points should succinctly answer the question: “As a result of this travel grant, what could the UK Protected Crops and Outdoor Ornamentals sector look out for?”
Examples:
- Growers in north-east Canada are experiencing rapid growth of Christmas sales of new cut-leaf Poinsettia variety ‘Zoro’
- Tomato growers in Israel are using a high potassium feed to increase flavour volatiles and extend shelf life by another 6 days
- Spanish cucumber grower growers have reduced harvesting costs by 15% by using a new ‘Z-type’ training system
- Researchers in Belgium have identified three potential fungal viruses which could reduce the incidence of Sclerotinia in protected lettuce crops
- Scientists in Iceland have found key genes in the tomato relating to plant architecture which could pave the way to shorter plants producing similar or higher yields to current commercial varieties
Background: Text highlighting the organisational aspects of the visit: who attended: crops covered: value of the event, etc (max 200 words).
Travel Findings: Text that expands on the Headline bullet points and explains in more detail what/why/how/when the ‘advance’ could be put in to practice by growers/consultants/researchers. This is the main text body of the report which may include: relevant financial info, action points, and sources of related information – anything that the Travel Grant Recipient thinks an industry member would find useful to put that ‘Highlight’ in to practice. The addition of helpful graphs/diagrams or photographs to illustrate particular points is to be encouraged (500-1500 words).
Personal Statement: This section should describe how the work has impacted on you and why it is (or will be) of particular interest to the UK horticultural industry (50-150 words).
Contact details: Please include your contact details of where a reader may contact you for further information.
Acknowledgements: Please include any relevant individuals or organisations that have helped make this visit possible or especially worthwhile.
…………….
The report, written in Arial 12 point font with single-line spacing, should be submitted as a Word document to the Secretary within three months of the visit.
David Fox
Trust Administrator
GCRI Trust
c/o Hollyacre
Newlands Nursery, Pagham Road
Chichester
West Sussex
PO20 1LL