Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A research budget includes 15,000 GBP travel for two international conferences and four collaborator-visit trips over 3 years.
- Is an instance
A US-funded researcher books a US-flag carrier for an international trip to comply with the Fly America Act.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Personnel salary is not a travel cost.
- Not an instance
Equipment purchases are not travel costs.
- Not an instance
Commuting to one's regular workplace is not project travel.
Editorial commentary
Travel cost is the direct-cost budget line covering airfare, lodging, ground transport, per diem/subsistence, and conference registration incurred to carry out project work — site visits, fieldwork, collaborator meetings, and dissemination at conferences. It is allowable when it is reasonable, necessary for the project, and consistent with the institution’s own written travel policy (or, absent one, US federal per diem rates), the same reasonableness test applied to direct costs generally.
US federal rule: 2 CFR 200.474 and the Fly America Act
Under 2 CFR 200.474 (Travel costs), costs are allowable if they follow the recipient’s documented, consistently-applied policy, and the institution may not charge more than it would for an unfunded employee’s travel. Separately, the Fly America Act (49 U.S.C. 40118) requires US flag air carriers for international air travel funded by a federal award, with narrow exceptions such as an applicable Open Skies agreement or genuine unavailability of a US carrier — a rule that applies regardless of cost or convenience and is frequently missed by first-time travelers on federal grants.
Non-US funders
Horizon Europe and UKRI generally defer to the recipient institution’s own travel policy rather than imposing a separate federal-style rule, provided costs are reasonable, necessary, and clearly tied to the funded project’s objectives.
MTDC treatment and sustainability policies
Unlike equipment and the portion of a subaward above the federal exclusion threshold, travel is not on 2 CFR 200.1’s list of costs excluded from Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC) — it sits inside the base an institution’s indirect-cost rate is applied to. A growing number of institutions also layer sustainability policy on top of allowability rules, for example requiring rail over air for journeys below a defined duration or distance; this is an institutional or funder preference, not a US federal requirement.
What is generally not allowable
Ordinary home-to-office commuting, travel for a spouse or family member without specific written justification (e.g., disability accommodation), and first- or business-class airfare absent a documented medical or contractual justification are the recurring items an auditor flags on a federal award.
References
- 2 CFR 200.474 (Travel costs); Fly America Act, 49 U.S.C. 40118.
Also known as
Travel and subsistence · T&S · Project travel
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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