Funding and travel for PhD students?

Last May I visited the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM), a research institute located on the campus of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. I am a PhD candidate at the University of Limerick, Ireland and this international trip was my second visit to the CRM to work with my PhD co-supervisor Prof Tim Myers. In this blog post, I will discuss international travel from the perspective of a PhD student.

Firstly, travel needs to be paid for, and to secure funding one needs to be proactive. I have submitted four grant applications as a PhD student; luckily for me, three of these applications were successful. The Mathematics for Industry Network funded my first visit to the CRM (Grant No: ECOST-STSM-TD1409-290216-071429). The Irish Research Council funded my second and most recent trip to the CRM (Grant No: GOIPG-2014-887). And, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) along with the…