TRAVEL USING VA RESOURCES RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SERVICE SOUTH TEXAS VETERANS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM AUGUST 12, 2014

AS SOON AS YOU KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO TRAVEL- CONTACT THE RESEARCH OFFICE!

 You must establish a Concur account, if you are going to travel on VA time and/or use VA funds. Please contact Lisa Moutria X16904) in the Research Office for required forms if you do not have an CONCUR (Formerly FEDTRAVELER)  If you are going to use VA funds to travel, you need pre- approval through ACES and then you may create your travel authorization through Concur  If you are not using VA funds but you are travelling using VA time, you still need to create your travel authorization through Concur so that you can be on “travel status”

 Up to a $1000 can be budgeted in your grant application to be used towards travel. These funds can be used to pay for hotel, meals and airfare. This will be done through Concur TRAVEL USING VA FUNDS-GRANTS  DO NOT use personal credit cards to pay for abstract submissions, registrations or posters. No after the fact reimbursements are authorized  Grant funds, in addition to the $1000, may be used to pay for abstract submissions, registrations and making/printing posters

TRAVEL USING VA FUNDS-GRANTS  To pay for abstract submissions, registrations or posters using your VA grant funds, a VA Purchase Order (PO) has to be set up in advance. To do so, fill out the hard copy registration/abstract/poster order form and hand it to Ms. Judy Berdecia X15550) in the Research Office so that she can set up a  Prior to using any VA funds towards travel (registration, hotels, airfares, meals), it is now REQUIRED that the PI gets approval through ACES

 VA employees are REQUIRED to pre-register their intent to attend an external conference listed on the ACES (Attendance and Cost Estimation System) microsite, IF they are going to use VA funds. More information is provided at: TRAVEL USING VA FUNDS-ACES  Await notification of approval or disapproval via . Do not officially register for the conference until you receive notification  Judy Berdecia will require a copy of your ACES approval before she sets up the PO to pay for registration

Conference name GSA Registration Start End Date 04/14 08/01 Conference Start End Date 11/05 11/09

ACES approval is only required if VA funds (research or medical) will be used to support the travel TRAVEL USING VA FUNDS-ACES If the ACES ‘Requests to Attend’ has closed, employees can send in a request to the VHA conference support team and they will be put on a waiting list Events Occurring in … ACES Requests to Attend CLOSES JulyApril 15 AugustApril 30 SeptemberMay 15 OctoberJuly 1 NovemberAugust 1 DecemberSeptember 1

TRAVEL USING VA RESOURCES  As soon as your abstract is approved, upload the abstract of your presentation in PubTracker system (  Contact Dennis Bryan X15538) in the Research Office if you need more

 For overseas travel, days advance notice is required as you must have a government passport and requires a higher level of approval (VISN 17 or Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Operations and Management)  More information is available at : OVERSEAS TRAVEL

BRFST Support of Travel  Travel must be to facilitate the conduct of approved VA research/education activities or to facilitate functions related to those missions, including travel for activity planning.  Must travel on Official Duty Status (not AA or AL)  Must enter travel into VA travel system  If travel is Explicitly Stated or Clearly Implied as part of CRADA, BRFST may reimburse VA or provide “In Kind” assistance, but NPC MAY NOT Pay Traveler Directly.  If Travel is for training or a meeting and is not part of a CRADA (ex: Am. Heart Assoc. Meeting) the NPC may pay traveler directly.  Travel must be entered into VA travel system as “no cost” travel