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Travel Reimbursement Mind & Brain

[Written by Nina Mar 22nd , 2018]

Generally, Annette Winkelmann (AW) is very supportive and generous when it comes to travel and conference reimbursements. But keep in mind that she likes conscientious and neat work as much as she deprecates a sloppy one, so increase your chances of a successful application by reading the information below carefully.

AW will not process unsigned/unsupported travel grant forms or students’ informal requests by telephone or e-mail. Therefore, a formal application has to be handed to AW either by you (less than 150€) or by Carsten only (more than 150€). AW won’t accept the latter if it is not handed in by Carsten.

Table of content

  1. Before your trip: Application for Travel Grant
    • Travels up to 150€
    • Travels above 150€
    • Fill in the forms
    • Request fee reimbursements only
  2. Application for early partial payment (Abschlagszahlung)
  3. Booking: General recommendations
  4. After your trip: get reimbursed!
    • General information
    • Fill in the form …
    • Things that cannot be reimbursed
  5. Good to know
  6. Links/Attachments

Before your trip: Application for Travel Grant

  • If you do not have any other funding source (external scholarship), it is important that you check your eligibility for a travel grant reimbursement by handing in your travel grant application forms at least 2 weeks before buying tickets or paying conference fees. Due to financial restrictions that may apply during the course of the financial year there is no guarantee that M&B can support you in every case.

Travels up to 150€

  • Fill in Form_TravelGrant_under150_Nov2017 (preferably with the computer)
  • Can only be used for travels within Germany.
  • These requests can be passed to AW by you directly.

Travels above 150€

  • Fill in Form_TravelGrant_over150_Nov2017 (preferably with the computer)
  • This form is also used for travels under 150€ outside of Germany.
  • These requests must be passed to AW by Carsten!

Fill in the forms

  • Attachment (a)
    • attach at least 3 price comparisons as screenshots/prints for the days you want to travel (return trip)
    • if you want to combine your trip with holidays, add additional comparisons for those days
    • Travel includes all the way from your home to the place of the conference and bag (i.e. a train/bus to the airport is covered)
    • Keep in mind that with cheap flights, luggage costs might be extra. Add this to your calculation (and explain if not obvious)
    • If you plan on booking two pieces on one flight (e.g. additional poster roll), you need to check with AW first.
    • If prices went up until Annette gave her consent, please sent her an email with a short explanation and the screenshots of the new prices à wait for her response!
  • Attachment (b)
    • Essay of 100w if you are an active member (i.e. presenting a poster/talk)
    • Essay of 500w if you are a passive member
  • Attachment (c)
    • Usually the program
  • Attachment (d)
    • A screenshot of the confirmation mail will do the job
  • Accommodation
    • No price comparison needed (see section ‘Booking: General recommendations’ for tips).

Request fee reimbursements only

Application for early partial payment (Abschlagszahlung)

  • If you travel to a conference overseas, costs easily exceed 1000€. If you can’t pay this in advance, you can apply at the HU Geschäftsstelle for a “Dienstreise” and a “Abschlagszahlung”. This means, that the HU is paying you 80% of the calculated costs in advance.
  • This is quite time consuming and has to be planned in advance (I’d say at least 4 weeks prior to booking). It is probably less work to ask your parents (or someone else) to borrow you some money until you get reimbursed.
  • If this is not possible
    • Fill out the first page of “Antrag auf Genehmigung einer Dienstreise” (attached). The second page has to be filled out by AW.
    • As soon as your “Reisekostenantrag” is approved, fill out “Antrag auf Abschlagszahlung” and send it to the HU-Geschäftsstelle
  • More Infos and both documents can also be found here: https://www.personalabteilung.hu-berlin.de/themen-a-z/reisekosten/ (HU network necessary for download)

Booking: General recommendations

  • Keep all original receipts and try to get reimbursed
  • Avoid mobile tickets, use the old-fashioned paper tickets
    • Train tickets must be stamped
  • Accommodation:
    • A cheap solution is usually the desired one (AirBnB is often cheaper than a hotel, service fees included)
    • If an accommodation is in a walking distance from the conference, you can also choose a more expensive option, since you do not need to be reimbursed for bus/train to the conference site. However, the mark-up needs to be reasonable.
    • Some countries add a visitor’s tax to the hotel cost. Check this and eventually add it to the accommodation cost. However, sometimes a visitor’s tax cannot be reimbursed, but it is worth a try.
    • If you are planning to share your accommodation with colleagues (e.g. Airbnb), divide the price though the number of fellow travelers and add a short explanation for AW.
  • Hotel invoices should be issued to your name followed by Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin
  • In case of Airbnb the invoice has to be issued to your private home address.
  • As soon as you paid, print out the bank statement that the money was transferred.
  • In case of foreign currency, use oanda (https://www.oanda.com/lang/de/currency/converter/) to provide the exact amount in € on that particular day.

After your trip: get reimbursed!

General information

  • Fill in the Travel expenses and reimbursement claim form on your computer and hand in the original (no scans).
  • Important: reimbursements for travel/conference fees are strictly only possible within six months of travelling/attending and are only possible with receipts!
  • Since reimbursements can only take place against original travel

documents/receipts:

  • Hand in original invoices/receipts/tickets according to the requirements described in the  Travel expenses and reimbursement claim form
  • Trains: You should try *not* to travel on a mobile phone e-ticket. Ideally, print out your train e-ticket and have it stamped by the train personnel.
  • However, if you do travel on a mobile phone ticket you will have to print it out and hand in to us a signed and dated confirmation (by the train personnel!) saying that you actually travelled on this ticket.
  • With electronic flight tickets please also hand in your boarding passes.
  • Travel expense can only be reimbursed to a german account!

Fill in the form…

  • Vacation:
    • Here, you are supposed to literally make a list, e.g.
      • Day 1: Travel
      • Day 2: Conference
      • Day 3: Conference
      • Day 4: Workshop
      • …
    • Accommodation:
      • If you shared accommodation with your colleagues, list all the names and what everybody paid (might differ regarding shared/single room)
    • Third-Party Payments
      • In case the invoice of conference fees etc. has not your name on it because it was paid by your parents or another external source.
    • List of attachments (receipts/invoices/bus tickets/…)
      • AW wants everything numbered in the top right corner!
      • Small receipts have to be taped on a blank A4 sheet (TESA preferred)
      • A lot of conferences do not give certificates of attendance any more, ask on site if they can give you one. If this is not possible, tell AW or take a picture of you at the conference 😉

Things that cannot be reimbursed

  • Poster prints at the conference site (or city where the conference takes place)
    • M&B generally does not reimburse for poster printing, however, it is possible to print at HU Berlin for free
  • Food

Good to know …

  • M&B can only reimburse conference travel if you are an active member, i.e. if you present a poster or give a talk. M&B need to see an invitation and a certificate or confirmation of attendance (e.g. e-mail, that your abstract was accepted).
    • Exception may be made in 2 cases (worth to hand in an application):
      • Annual/biannual meetings of professional organizations such as the DGPPN (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Nervenheilkunde), or similar
      • If you are a passive member at a conference/workshop, Attachment (b) in both application forms must encompass at least 500w. Additionally, a second 500w report is necessary, describing your experience at the conference/workshop.
    • SPM/MATLAB/… or other method courses are not eligible for travel reimbursement by M&B.
    • If you have an external funding source but your application has not been approved yet: you can also apply for M&B funding and withdraw any time from the M&B application as soon as your external funding organization approves to fund you. If you do not get fully funded by the external source, costs can be split.
    • Generally, conference travels can be combined with private holidays if the travel costs are not significantly higher.

Links/Attachments