Graduate Expansion Funding (GEF) & Reimbursement Guide

Graduate Expansion Funding (GEF) provides targeted financial assistance exclusively managed within the GGE department. It supports UTM-affiliated Geography and Planning graduate students with qualifying educational travel, active fieldwork, and professional association expenses.

On This Page

• Eligible Expenses
• Application Process
• Expense & Rates Reference
• How to Claim Reimbursement (Concur)
• Companion Resources

• Travel & Field Research: Costs tied directly to attending and presenting academic work at conferences, traveling out to conduct field research, or purchasing vital research consumables.
• Professional Memberships: Annual registration or association membership fees for primary field organizations (e.g., CGU, AAG, CAG, etc.).

Application Process

The department organizes application cycles aligned with academic terms:

• Fall Cycle: For eligible expenses incurred between September to December
• Winter Cycle: For eligible expenses incurred between January to April
• Summer Cycle: For eligible expenses incurred between May to August

Application Submission Requirements

All requests must be logged digitally via the online GEF Application Form during an active call. The application link is distributed directly to students via email for each specific call window. Every digital application package must include:

1. Comprehensive Budget Breakdown: You must document your entire trip budget even if you are only requesting GEF to cover a small portion of the overall expense. All line items must be calculated and displayed in CAD. Convert any international or USD fees using the official Bank of Canada exchange rate. Use live booking sites to source exact costs including real-time taxes and surcharges — do not use broad estimates.
2. Statement of Purpose: A targeted brief addressing what the requested funds will purchase, why the conference or research trip is required for your graduate studies, and highlighting your specific cost-saving actions. Your statement must cleanly demonstrate that your choices reflect the most economical options available.
3. Supervisor Matching Contribution: If your total GEF funding request exceeds $500, an explicit financial matching contribution from your academic supervisor is required. Do not hesitate to coordinate with your supervisor early to secure these matching funds.
4. Note: The internal application system only accepts attachments uploaded in PDF or DOCX file format.

Important Policy Reminders

• No Double-Dipping: GGE’s GEF funding cannot be combined with the Geography and Planning Conference Award for the exact same conference event. Dual-funding—even a partial split—is completely prohibited.
• Academic Standing Metrics: To successfully apply, you must be explicitly tracked in ROSI as a graduate student affiliated with the University of Toronto Mississauga, registered full-time both during the application window and throughout the dates of conference attendance, and remain in good standing as defined by your graduate unit.
• Review Window: Following submission, your application files are forwarded to your supervisor for authentication. The departmental committee then evaluates the files and communicates final award results within approximately 2 weeks.
• Late Policy: Late expense claims will not be accepted under any circumstances.

Expense & Rates Reference

To maintain equity across the department, all student budgets must align with standard university threshold limits and cost-containment frameworks:

Meal Allowances (Per Diem vs. Receipts)

Students can either claim fixed baseline per diems or submit original itemized restaurant receipts showing complete proof of payment. Always verify your maximum reimbursable per diem with your supervisor prior to departing to clarify if itemized receipts will be needed.

• Daily Combinations: You may combine per diem rates and real receipts on the same calendar day, but they cannot be claimed for the exact same meal window.
• Exclusions: You are prohibited from claiming an allowance or receipt for any meal that is already included in your conference registration fees.

Note: Alcohol ordered alongside personal meals is strictly ineligible and cannot be claimed under any circumstances.

Travel & Lodging Regulations

Flight & Ground Travel

• Airfare Tier Constraints: Only standard economy class bookings are eligible for reimbursement. Premium economy, business class, or private suites are entirely uncollectible.
• Reimbursement Timeline: Airfare receipts can be processed for reimbursement as soon as the ticket cost has been incurred. However, physical proof of travel (such as your boarding passes and destination hotel bill) must be kept and provided after the trip concludes.
• Local Terminal Travel: Ground transportation costs (such as public transit, shuttles, or rideshares like Uber) to and from airports or terminals in both your home and destination cities are fully reimbursable.
• Personal Vehicle Mileage:Driving travel is reimbursed at a fixed mileage allowance of $0.57/km, which integrates gas, oil, normal maintenance, repairs, and roadside towing. Mileage is highly recommended for round trips ≤ 500 km; trips exceeding 500 km require sourcing cheaper or more practical alternatives like rail, commercial buses, or car rentals.

Accommodations & Roommates

• Hotel Selections: Students are expected to utilize standard business hotels or shared rental units. Choosing to share a room with a roommate is highly encouraged as an effective cost-saving measure.
• Shared Expense Splitting: If rooming together, the single student who physically pays for the room submits the entire reimbursement claim. The financial system automatically processes and splits the reimbursement across the roommates' individual GEF allocations behind the scenes, eliminating the need to send e-transfers to each other.
• Booking Window: Accommodation can be booked for up to one additional day prior to the start of an event and one additional day after its formal conclusion.
• Third-Party Booking Records: When booking spaces using aggregate engines (like Expedia), you must submit a complete booking confirmation invoice that explicitly itemizes the credit card transaction details and exact travel dates.
• Hotel Folios: Upon check-out, you must save and submit the final statement showing all itemized daily guest charges from the hotel folio.
• Airbnb Specifics: Your short-term rental receipt must show complete check-in/out dates, exact details and location of the host establishment, and total charges including taxes. 
• Combining Business and Personal Travel: must receive pre-approval from the GGE department manager to combine business (i.e., conference) and personal travel by providing comparable quotes for 1) business plus personal travel and 2) business travel alone

Other Incidental Reimbursements

You may claim abstract submission fees, conference admission/registration fees, and poster printing fees (such as production runs ordered through the UTM Print Shop).

Non-Reimbursable Expenses

The following items are completely ineligible for reimbursement under any circumstances:

• Premium economy, business, or first-class airline tickets
• Personal health, medical, or standard life insurance policies (Trip cancellation insurance is eligible)
• Tourist visas and passport renewal/application fees
• Alcohol charges of any kind
• Luxury resort or presidential suite stays, driving infractions/traffic fines, office furniture, or specialized lab equipment 

How to Claim Reimbursement (Concur)

Every expense reimbursement transaction must be handled digitally using the University of Toronto’s central Concur system.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open the university's Concur portal and log in using your valid UTORid credentials and password.
2. Click the "Create Expense Report" button located on your dashboard. Complete every required input field marked with a red asterisk inside the pop-up modal.
3. Ensure your report header fields exactly utilize the department billing organizational codes listed below.
4. Click "Create Report" at the bottom of the window to save your details and establish the report shell.
5. On the report canvas page, click "Add Expense" to begin uploading/scanning digital receipts or manually documenting transaction amounts. Repeat this process for every unique receipt.
6. Once your line-item ledger is complete and matches all entered expenses, perform a final accuracy review and click "Submit Report".

Companion Resources

• GEF Workshop Slides (PDF): Provides full operational policy explanations, advice on balancing your budget efficiently, complete visual walkthrough of a model application package, and required information for Concur reimbursements
• UofT Corporate Expense Checklist: A quick pre-flight operational check tool to read through before transmitting your final claim into Concur.