Graduate Research Enhancement and Travel Awards (GREAT Awards)

The Graduate Research Enhancement and Travel (GREAT) Awards provide funding to support graduate student research travel and research dissemination activities. Activities supported include presentation at conferences, fieldwork, archival research and collaborative research outside the University.

1. GREAT Budget Allocation Process

The administration of GREAT Awards is shared between GPS, faculties, and departments, with responsibilities distributed as outlined below.

• GPS receives a fixed portion of the University's overall budget and distributes it to faculties based on the enrolment of Master's thesis and doctoral students. GPS communicates each faculty's allocation for the following academic year in the preceding December (e.g., allocations for Academic Year 2027/2028 are communicated in December 2026).
• Faculties redistribute their GREAT allocations to departments in accordance with student enrolment, faculty priorities, and local funding needs. The timing of this redistribution is determined by each faculty, who can advise departments on their processes and timelines. Faculty contact information is available here.
• Departments determine recipients and award values, and disburse funding in accordance with their established eligibility criteria and application procedures. 

2. Student Awarding Process

GREAT Awards are administered through a decentralized model in which faculties and departments establish their own application processes, timelines, and funding priorities.

While not intended to operate as a standardized University-wide competition, GPS encourages practices that support transparency, consistency, and clear communication. The guidelines below provide a common framework informed by departmental experience and feedback, while respecting the autonomy of faculties and departments in administering their allocations.

a) Awarding Timeline

• Departments may administer GREAT funding through either fixed application deadlines or on a rolling basis. Regardless of the approach, all GREAT allocations must be awarded or committed in BSA by April 1. Unspent allocations cannot be carried forward into the next academic year.

• Summer Budgets are available to departments that need to make unplanned payments to students during the Summer term. Requests for summer funding should be submitted to GPS through the appropriate faculty contact listed at the bottom of this page. The requests are typically submitted at the end of April, and made available in BSA by May 20. 

• Please note that any Summer Budget provided to a department will be drawn from that department's allocation for the upcoming academic year.

To ensure that allocation amounts are being utilized strategically, consider the following application/processing timelines: 

b) Eligibility

Students must meet the eligibility criteria both at the time of travel and when the award is paid. They must : 

• Be Master's thesis or doctoral students
• Register full-time in their program
• Not be in time limitation
• Complete a travel registry if travelling outside of the Greater Montreal Area

3. Best Practices

To promote transparency and support a positive student experience, faculties and departments are encouraged to consider the following best practices when administering GREAT funding:

a) Communication

i) Faculties

• Are encouraged to inform departments of their GREAT allocations in a timely manner, preferably in March or April.
• Should inform departments about submitting Summer Budget requests as soon as they receive notification from GPS in April.
• Should clearly communicate faculty-specific priorities or requirements either on a dedicated GREAT Award website, or in email communications with departments.

ii) Departments

• Are encouraged to maintain a website that clearly outlines eligibility requirements, application procedures, and competition timelines, allowing students to plan their research travel accordingly
• In the absence of such a website, details of the departmental point of contact for the GREAT Award should be provided.

b) Award Processing 

• For departments that opt to reimburse travel-related expenses, note that students who have withdrawn or graduated no longer meet the eligibility requirements for GREAT funding. Since the risk of losing funds increases after the April 1 processing deadline, departments should ensure that award payments are processed while students remain actively registered at McGill.

• This fund only supports awards processed through BSA; expense reports submitted through Workday are not allowed.

4. Faculty Contacts