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

• Your Stay Abroad request must be (conditionally) approved 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 also fine.)
• 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 194 Euros (but you can still apply even if your travel will be more expensive, see below).

For exchange / study abroad in semester 1

• Applications for Semester 1 are closed

For exchange / study abroad in semester 2

• Start date of your exchange is between 1 January 2024 and 1 June 2024.
• Applications are possible in Osiris from Thursday 16 November onwards.
• Deadline for submitting your application in Osiris is Thursday, November 30th.

For traineeship, internship or fieldwork abroad

• 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 on your application within two weeks after application, but processing times may be longer in busy periods. 

For exchanges/internships in academic year 2024-2025: applications take place in spring/summer 2024. Please check back later for further information.

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.)

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, that's fine. As long as the rest of your trip is by train/bus.
• The maximum grant amount you can receive is 194 Euros. If your trip is more expensive, you will receive the maximum of 194 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 a 4-day Interrail Global Pass instead of a normal bus or train ticket. The four travel days of your Interrail Pass will be valid for one month, starting on the first travel day. If the travel to your destination does not take four days, you can make extra stops on the way to see other cities, or you can use your leftover travel days for a short trip later in the month.

You may choose the Interrail Global Pass option (194 Euros) in your application in the following situations:

• your journey takes more than 10 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 150 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.

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. For tips and tricks about green travel, take a look at this page by the UU Green Office. 
3. Buy your tickets as soon as possible, because ticket prices go up and travel options disappear once you get closer to your travel date.

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 194 Euros, but the tickets for your journey turn out to be more expensive, then we will still refund 194 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 <194 then we can not reimburse Interrail tickets, so please don't buy them. We can also 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 194 Euro budget for a 4-day Interrail Global Pass, then you may buy a more expensive Interrail Pass instead, but we will still only refund 194 Euros. 

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.