Postdoc Travel Allowance

Travel allowance for postdoctoral fellows

  •  Postdoctoral fellow at the Feinberg Graduate School are eligible to receive an annual allocation of $2,363.
  • The allowance is cumulative.
  • The allowance is not available to postdoctoral fellows receiving external fellowships.
  • The fiscal year at the Weizmann Institute starts on October 1 and ends on the following September 30. So, if you start your training after October 1, you will receive a partial allocation funds, proportional to the remaining time until September 30.

 

Obligations

Travel forms
Postdocs must submit their travel request forms via TAFNIT BEFORE the planned travel. Travel request forms will NOT be approved retroactively (i.e., if submitted after the fact)! Please note that it is your responsibility to submit the travel forms. In general, your departmental administrator does not handle or approve requests for trips unless traveling expenses are also funded from other sources or in a case where the balance in the individual budget is insufficient to finance a planned trip abroad. Should you wish, you may authorize someone else to do it on your behalf.

Travel closure
Postdocs must submit their travel closer forms through TAFNIT immediately after returning to WIS.

Approvals
The relevant authorities must approve each travel (through TAFNIT). Traveling without consent in advance is prohibited.

Medical insurance
The purchase of medical insurance for the duration of the planned travel abroad is obligatory.

Obligations

  • Postdocs may use only the remaining balance in their budget.
  • Postdocs may use the remaining balance while only their postdoc status is active at the WIS.
  • The purchase of the peripheral equipment is up to six months prior to the end of training.

 

Usage

  • The use of the budget is possible only for the following expenditures (against original receipts and boarding cards - please make sure you keep them for reimbursement):
  • Traveling to scientific conferences abroad.
  • Issuing a visa (not including an Israeli visa).
  • Traveling for scientific collaboration.
  • Participation in scientific meetings held in Israel.
  • Participation in online scientific conferences.


All travel related expenses mentioned above require travel forms and must be handled and approved by the WIS Travel Bureau (contact information).

 

  • Tuition related to seminars, courses, and softs skills workshops.

This type of expense must be handled and approved by the WIS Finance Division (contact information).

COVID related allowance

Due to COVID-19, the FGS recently extended the expenditure mentioned above to include purchasing peripheral equipment listed below to assist you in Zoom meetings. If you wish to buy these items, you must pay for them and keep the original receipt.

  • Computer camera
  • Computer microphone
  • Headsets
  • Computer monitor
     

Please note that the maximum purchase value (including VAT) per item may not exceed NIS1,500. There will be NO reimbursement for more than one item of the same category.

The above mentioned type of expenses must be handled and approved by the WIS Finance Division (contact information).

Reimbursement

  • Payments from the travel budget will be approved only if it contains sufficient funds. Under no circumstances will withdrawals be allowed that place the balance in deficit ─ even if the next allowance is expected to be transferred, in the near future, into your budget. Requests for exceptional expenses will not be considered.
  • Most expenditures, especially those related to travel abroad, are paid directly from your travel budget and handled by the travel bureau. Otherwise, postdocs who buy any of them on their own should submit the original receipts to the travel bureau.


Expiration of the allowance

Eligibility to use the travel allowance expires on the day that your postdoctoral training period ends. In other words, the money is designated to cover travel expenses only for those conferences that take place during your postdoctoral fellowship.

Using the following year’s allocation

You may request to use whole or part of your allocation for the following year, provided that you continue to be a postdoctoral fellow. If you do not stay, you are required to return the money that you received.