ODU travel form
If your conference requires travel please do not forgot to also complete the ATA form.
Instructions on Travel Policies (See also attached flowchart)
S. Kuhn, August 2024 (no guarantee of correctness)
There are specific rules concerning ALL professional travel (i.e., any travel that is not strictly personal,
like vacations, but in your capacity as an ODU or ODURF-affiliated employee), both by you and by
your students/postdocs (and visitors), whether on grant money or state money. Make sure you learn
about these rules before making travel arrangements (including buying airline tickets), either from
your GCA (grant administrator) at ODURF or from the department staff (for state-supported travel). At
a minimum, keep in mind:
- For ALL travel abroad (ODU-supported and ODURF supported), University Policy 1007
(https://ww1.odu.edu/about/policiesandprocedures/university/1000/1007) requires you to register through
the ODU Travel Registry System https://travelregistry.odu.edu/.
- If your research is sponsored by the US Dept. of Energy or NIH, travel that is (partially) paid for,
sponsored, reimbursed, or otherwise funded by outside entities may have to be reported on the
COI interface of the ODURF Portal https://hera.odurf.odu.edu/RFPortal, even outside the annual
COI disclosure cycle (typically after travel but close to completion of the trip). Professional
societies, foreign institutions of higher education, for-profit entities and non-profit entities are a
few examples of outside entities that require disclosures. Travel paid for by the University, federal,
state, or local government agencies, US higher education institutions, US academic teaching
hospitals, US medical centers or research institutes affiliated with a US institution of higher
education, generally do NOT need to be disclosed.
- For STATE-SUPPORTED travel, you (and/or your students, postdocs, visitors…) MUST get
previous authorization through Chrome River.
- For practically all travel supported/reimbursed by ODURF (including from discretionary or
incentive accounts), you must fill out and submit a request for an Advanced Travel Authorization
(ATA) and receive an ATA number.*) This includes all international travel and any domestic travel
supported by your grant or discretionary account if the travel is overnight or if you plan to rent a
car. Go to https://researchfoundation.odu.edu/forms/, scroll to the bottom and click on “Advance
Travel Authorization (ATA) Request Form”. Fill out the form in Adobe and submit *) to your Grant
Officer (GCA). If you (your postdoc/student/…) are (is) an employee of ODU (as opposed to only
ODURF), the form will require your immediate ODU supervisor’s (usually the chair’s) signature –
send to the chair after you have completed it. Note that you must have an “export control
checklist” on file for your grant and/or fill one out for all international travel. Note that there is a
2nd page – you must fill that out for international travel! Also be advised that the approval process
for international travel through ODURF can be rather lengthy (2 weeks is by no means atypical),
as the Director of Secure Research and Regulated Activities (presently David Flanagan) will have
to check and confirm that there are no concerns connected with your travel. This is even true if you
travel to another NATO country or western democracy. Plan accordingly and complete all of the
steps listed above as early as possible.
*) The only excep,on is travel supported by the DEPARTMENTAL discre,onary account, in which case the
Department Chair (as the PI) will submit the ATA form for you – you s,ll need to fill it out completely, though!
- It is recommended that your travel bookings (in particular international airline tickets) go through
“CI Azumano Travel”. They are contracted with ODURF and can issue a ticket at no cost to you
once you have an ODURF ATA#. CI Azumano will need confirmation from your GCA once you
have approved the itinerary; they will directly invoice ODURF for the cost of the ticket. Of course,
you can also book your travel yourself and get reimbursed. However, in particular for international
travel, you must make sure to follow all federal rules, like “Fly American Act” and export control
regulations (even if all you “export" is yourself!). Your GCA will help you with this – this can take
some time, so start early! Some other costs that you have to prepay (registration fees, hotel, etc.)
can by submitted for reimbursement right away through a Travel Advance/Expense report form.
- After concluding any grant-supported travel, you must fill out (or complete, if you received any
advances) the Travel Advance/Expense form.
- For state-supported travel, including travel by students, postdocs or visitors (e.g., Colloquium
speakers), you must get approval through Chrome River. Furthermore, you must have receipts for
everything that you plan to get reimbursements for (including each meal, taxi cab fare, etc.). You
even have to document which hotel you stayed in (whether the State pays for it or not!) and your
flight itinerary and boarding passes. Also, you cannot exceed the officially approved per diem rate
for meals and lodging, even if you have receipts. (All of this includes travel by visitors that you
want to have reimbursed). In other words: Work closely with Department staff both before and
after your travel!
- Keeping all receipts is a good idea for any kind of travel.
Here is the ODURF web page with all of their travel policies: https://researchfoundation.odu.edu/travel/.
Ask your GCA if you have any questions.
Instructions on ODURF procurement
Any direct purchase of items or services (including tickets, registration, publication fees etc.) from your
grant requires a purchase requisition. A separate requisition must be submitted for each order/vendor.
(You can get reimbursement for travel expenditures from your own private funds before or after your
travel through the Travel Advance/Expense Report at
https://researchfoundation.odu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Travel-Advance-Expense-Report.pdf)
The fastest way to initiate a purchase requisition from ODURF is by going to
https://researchfoundation.odu.edu/forms/ and pick the form “Purchase Requisition” (see instructions
there if you don’t have access). The form is mostly self-explanatory. More detailed instructions can be
found at https://researchfoundation.odu.edu/procurement/ .
FLOW DIAGRAM FOR ALL TRAVEL INVOLVING ODURF – SEE NEXT PAGE =>
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