Travel Green Grant

Who can apply?

1. Students who have been selected to study at a European partner university through an UU Exchange Programme.
2. Students who are going abroad to a European destination for a traineeship, an internship, or fieldwork which is part of their study programme at UU.

Conditions

• You must have a (conditionally) approved Stay Abroad application in Osiris before you can start the Travel Green Grant application.
• You are going to a European exchange/traineeship destination (UK, Switzerland and Turkey included). 
• You wish to travel by train or bus as an alternative to flying. (If part of your journey is by boat/ferry, that's fine if most of the trip is by bus/train.)
• You may start your trip from another country than the Netherlands, as long as the starting country is not the same country as your destination.
• You are willing to fill out the Travel Green Grant Report (a questionnaire to improve the grant for future students) at the end of your stay abroad.
• You have not received the TGG before in the same study cycle (Bachelor's/Master's).
• The maximum amount you can receive is 212 Euros (but you can still apply even if your travel will be more expensive, see below).

For exchange in academic year 2024-2025

• The first round of applications for students going on exchange in semester 1 took place between 17 June and 1 July 2024.
• Because there is still budget available, we are currently offering students who have not yet applied the chance to do so. The deadline for this second round of applications is Thursday, July 18th. 
• If you have applied by July 18th, you will receive a response by July 22nd at the latest.

For traineeship/internship or fieldwork

• At the moment, applications are open for all traineeships/fieldwork with a start date before 1 December 2024.
• There is no set application period, your deadline is based on your traineeship start date.
• You should apply as soon as possible, and at least 6 weeks prior to your (estimated) travel date. This is your personal deadline.
• We aim to give you a decision within two weeks after application, but processing times may be longer in busy periods. 

If you missed an application deadline for any of the above categories, but you would still like to apply for the Travel Green Grant, feel free to e-mail us at travelgreengrant@uu.nl and we will see what we can do for you. (It is however no longer possible to apply if your stay abroad has already started -- no exceptions.)

Due to budgetary issues, it has not yet been confirmed whether Travel Green Grant will again be available in Semester 2. This website will be updated with information for Semester 2 in the fall.

Before you apply

Please take note of the following before you apply in Osiris:

• The TGG covers only the way to your Stay Abroad destination. The grant does not cover the return ticket. 
• The Travel Green Grant will reimburse the actual cost of the bus/train/Interrail tickets that you ended up buying, as long as you stay within the personal budget we have allocated to you.
• If you need to complete part of your journey by ferry/boat, you can still be eligible for the grant -- as long as the rest of your trip is by train/bus.
• The maximum grant amount you can receive is 212 Euros. If your trip is more expensive, you will receive the maximum of 212 Euros.
• Your grant will be paid to you after you have travelled to your destination and uploaded your tickets. This way we can be sure that your trip was not cancelled when we pay the grant.

How to apply in Osiris 

• Go to the Stay Abroad (Buitenland) section in OSIRIS > Exchange > Grants, and choose the Travel Green Grant.
• Fill in the application. Do not forget to click submit! 
• In your application, you need to estimate your travel costs. Please check ticket prices online and try to give a realistic amount. (See below for Interrail option!)
• If you have an international (non-Dutch) bank account, you must provide all the bank details asked for in Osiris.

The application process is generally pretty quick and painless, but feel free to e-mail us if you run into any issues.

Can I choose an Interrail Pass?

Under certain conditions (see below) you may buy an Interrail Pass instead of a normal bus or train ticket. With the new Interrail Pass for Erasmus+ you'll have four travel days, to be used within a six-month period. This means you can use the pass to travel to your exchange destination and to travel back to the Netherlands at the end of your semester abroad.

You may choose the Interrail Global Pass option (212 Euros) in your application in the following situations:

• your journey takes more than 8 hours of travel time, AND/OR;
• your journey cannot be completed in one day due to limited travel options for (part of) your journey, AND/OR;
• if you bought normal (non-Interrail) bus- or train tickets for this trip, they would cost more than 160 Euros.

If you're not sure whether this applies to you, or if you have another (very good) reason to buy an Interrail ticket but your reason is not listed above: feel free to e-mail us beforehand to ask permission to choose the Interrail Pass option.

Before you buy your Interrail Pass

If you plan on taking high speed trains (such as TGV, Eurostar, etc.) then we advise you to look into reservation costs for these trains first. Usually, reservation costs for these trains are not included with the Interrail Pass, and they can add up!

How to buy tickets

Once you've received news that you have been awarded a Travel Green Grant, you can buy your tickets. 

1. Read all the information below carefully.
2. Buy your tickets as soon as possible, because ticket prices go up and travel options disappear once you get closer to your travel date.
3. NS International and Omio.com are handy websites for booking tickets. For UK destinations, use the National Rail website for the journey from London onwards.

Rules and restrictions for buying tickets

• When buying tickets, stick to your maximum personal TGG budget, as mentioned in the e-mail we have sent you. 
• If you have been awarded the maximum budget of 212 Euros, but the tickets for your journey turn out to be more expensive, then we will still refund 212 Euros.
• If you think there is a good reason why we should approve a higher budget than initially estimated, e-mail us to get our permission before buying (much) more expensive tickets.
• You may start your trip from another country than the Netherlands, as long as the starting country is not the same country as your destination.
• If your journey consists of multiple parts, you may buy multiple tickets.  
• You may make (multi-day) stops along the way as long as you can do this within your allocated personal budget (see above).

Buying an Interrail Pass

• If you have been awarded a budget of <212 then we can not reimburse Interrail tickets, so please don't buy them. We also can not refund part of an Interrail Ticket in that case, because we don't know what the actual costs of a normal ticket for your travel date would have been. 
• One exception to this rule: if you were allocated a 212 Euro budget for an Interrail Pass, then you may buy a more expensive Interrail Pass instead, but we will still only refund 212 Euros. 
• We recommend that you buy an Interrail Pass for Erasmus+ instead of the 'normal' Interrail Global Pass, because the longer travel period will allow you to use the Pass for your return trip at the end of the semester as well!

TGG does not cover the following

• Extra travel costs (i.e. non-mandatory place reservations, 1st class upgrades, or additional luggage) will not be reimbursed. 
• TGG does not cover (bus/tram/metro/taxi) travel to or from the train station.

Upload the Proof of Payment

After you have arrived at your exchange destination, you will upload the Proof of Payment in Osiris. We only pay the grant after you have arrived, because this way we know the exchange was not cancelled and you have actually undertaken the trip.

What should your uploads look like?

• You may upload multiple documents if necessary.
• The cost of your ticket(s), and any extra costs, should be clearly shown. 
• Your name should be visible on the tickets (if it is not, then also upload a receipt to show that you paid for them).
• Your travel date(s) should be visible on the ticket.
• The starting point of your trip and the end point of your trip should be visible (unless you bought an Interrail Pass).
• If you went slightly over your personal budget, that's usually fine, but please explain by adding a comment to your uploads.
• If you had to make mandatory place reservations, please indicate in the comments which reservations were mandatory.

Reimbursement process

1. After you have uploaded your tickets, we will check them in Osiris. If anything is unclear, we may ask additional questions and/or ask you to upload additional documents.
2. We will calculate your costs (excluding reservation costs) based on the prices shown on your tickets.
3. A payment notice will be sent to the Financial Department. It can take up to three weeks for them to process the payment.
4. You will receive a Grant Agreement stating the provisionally allocated Grant Amount, which you will sign and upload again in Osiris.

Travel Green Grant Report

As noted above (see 'Conditions' under 'Who can apply?'), you will be asked to fill out a questionnaire about your experiences with the Travel Green Grant and your journey. You will receive an invitation to complete the TGG Report by e-mail in due course. 

Although this step occurs after you have already received your payment, the TGG Report is a mandatory part of your grant process. The TGG Report is meant to help us to improve the TGG experience for future students, and to measure whether the goals of the Travel Green Grant programme are being met. Your answers may be used for research purposes, but only in anonymised form.

Questions?

Please contact the Travel Green Grant team via travelgreengrant@uu.nl. 

Please do not contact the Green Office with questions about the Travel Green Grant. The Green Office works with the International Office on aspects of green travel, but the application processes and management of the Travel Green Grant are the task of the Travel Green Grant team, which is part of the (central, i.e. not faculty) UU International Office.