Conference Travel Support and Expectations

Planning to travel to a research conference?

The Honors College can help!

We understand the invaluable experience that students receive from attending academic conferences and are proud to support conference-related expenses. All honors students and merit scholars are eligible to receive financial support to present their research at one conference. The Honors College will share expenses with programs and departments.

Please Note: The Honors College and the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) have already received more applications than what their FY26 conference travel funds can support. Neither are accepting any additional applications at this time (February 10, 2026).

The Honors College provides the opportunity to attend conferences with the following expectations.

Student Expectations:

Students will provide information (e.g., acceptance email, budget, destination (City, State), EXACT dates of travel, student ID, address, and the amount of funding being provided, if known) to Shannon Zurell at least one month prior to conference departure.
Students will attend multiple days and multiple sessions at the conference to learn and to network. Preferably, they will attend with the faculty mentor/program director.
Students will submit their poster/oral presentation to the faculty mentor/program director sufficiently in advance of the conference so feedback can be received and revisions can be made before the conference.
Students will practice their poster and oral presentations in front of the faculty mentor/program director prior to the conference so students can be well prepared.
Students will pay for their conference up front. If a student cancels after registration and transportation are purchased, the University will not reimburse expenses paid.
If students attend an honors conference with Honors College staff, they will participate in activities with the staff and other students.
Upon your return you will need to provide the following things to Shannon Zurell: hotel receipt, airfare receipt, registration receipt, and 1–2 paragraphs about what this experience meant to you.

Faculty Mentor and/or Program Director Expectations:

The faculty mentor/program director will review students’ poster/oral presentations and provide feedback to students in time for revisions.
The faculty mentor/program director will provide students the opportunity to practice delivering their poster/oral presentation in order to be well prepared.
If possible, the faculty mentor/program director will attend the conference with the students, sitting in sessions, and introducing the student to colleagues

Program / Department Expectations:

Programs/departments should cost share with the Honors College and the Office of Undergraduate Research.
Students will share hotel rooms unless they want to pay for their own.

POSTER PRINTING

The Honors College can print research posters for free for any honors students planning to present their research at conferences either on or off campus. Due to limited resources, we will print one time only. Please make sure it is formatted correctly.

In order to have your poster printed by the Honors College, you will need to send the following to Shannon Zurell:

Name of your honors program
Name of the conference
BOTH PDF and PowerPoint files
Save file as either 48×36 or 40×32 (portrait orientation)

Please provide all of the above at least three days before you need your completed poster. We will email you when your poster is ready for pickup.

Poster Templates

Not sure how to get started on your poster? The templates below are from the UNC Charlotte Undergraduate Research Conference and can provide a great starting point. There are also examples from across several disciplines that may provide ideas.

Templates:

Examples: