Booking Travel

Travel (including fieldwork) risk assessment and guidance during Covid-19 situation 

For the purposes of assessing the risk associated with travel (including travel related to fieldwork and/or conference attendance), the School of Informatics will consider students registered on PGR programmes to fall under the category of UoE staff. Therefore, PGR students should refer to, and follow, the University of Edinburgh Business Travel information for Staff. 

University of Edinburgh Business Travel Webpages

Travel (including fieldwork) on University business can now be undertaken but a Covid-19 specific travel risk assessment (TRA-CV19) must be completed for any travel on University of Edinburgh business, both within the UK and abroad. 

First, students and supervisors should follow the Restarting business travel flowchart to determine that the essential travel can be undertaken and can be appropriately considered for School approval. 

 Restarting business travel flowchart (82.29 KB PDF)

If the outcome of the flowchart review is that travel (outside of Edinburgh) can be considered for approval, then the next step would be for the student and supervisor to complete the TRA1-CV19 risk assessment.  The PGR supervisor should submit the TRA1-CV19 risk assessment form to the Director of Professional Services (DoPS), along with their statement of support, at least 4 weeks prior to the proposed travel/visit (NB: if the proposed travel/visit is outside of the UK, the TRA1-CV19 should be submitted with as much prior notice as possible, so that cheaper advanced travel/accommodation can be taken advantage of). 

The School DoPS will then consider the risk assessment and (hopefully) give approval for the travel to take place.  In all cases, TRA1-CV19 risk assessments will only be approved if the proposed research visit and travel can be conducted in a manner that complies with all local restrictions and regulations.

Travel RA (121.59 KB Word)

Once the School DoPS has given their approval, PGR students should then follow the normal processes for seeking approval of funding (e.g. submission of a Funds Request Form), travel insurance (NB: the School approved TRA1-CV19 risk assessment document must be submitted as part of the travel insurance application, and will be mandatory for submission) and requesting the booking of any travel/accommodation arrangements via the University's travel provider - Diversity Travel. 

https://www.ed.ac.uk/staff/business-travel/booking-travel

Important things to note

• PGR students can seek approval of funding to support the proposed travel/visit whilst awaiting DoPS approval of the TRA1-CV19 risk assessment, but no costs should be incurred without both approval of the risk assessment and approval of the funding by the relevant budget holder.   
• PGR students must secure University travel insurance for the travel/trip and will be required to provide evidence of it's approval to their CDT/IGS administrator.
• All travel and accommodation should be booked via the University's contracted preferred provider - Diversity Travel. Students should not be paying for travel and accommodation via personal funds and reclaiming via an eExpense (unless there is a very justifiable reason and permission has been given to do this). 
• If the approved travel/visit is not a mandatory/essential requirement of the programme of study (i.e. the work undertaken during the visit does not and will not count towards the award of academic credit - this would include attendance at conferences or any other non-essential professional development activity) then the University will not cover/reimburse costs associated with returning to the UK from countries where it will be legally necessary to enter into managed quarantine on return to Scotland. 

• Approval to travel may be impacted in the case of any changes to FCDO guidance e.g. if there is high risk alert in the destination country, or the country’s entry requirements (or other).  If FCDO guidance changes after risk assessment approval, students should be re-considering their risk assessment and mitigate any new risks. 

• If approval to travel to the destination country is revoked by the FCDO after the risk assessment has been approved, students will be covered under University insurance for any bookings made after the approval decision was given.  

• Where costs supporting an educational trip have been paid out in advance (e.g. for travel and accommodation) and a student subsequently chooses (for whatever reason) not to complete their trip and costs cannot be reimbursed via the travel insurance cover, then no further funding will be provided to the student for future travel/trips.