Reimbursement

• If you intend to organize an activity for the ecology and evolution doctoral program you should be informed of the rules of the CUSO concerning reimbursement before the beginning of the activity. If you have any doubts, please contact the coordinator of the doctoral program or the CUSO general secretary's office (see below).
  
  
• The person in charge of an activity is responsible for collecting signatures from the participants and sending this "list of participants", including their names, department, university, and status (PhD student, professor, etc.) to the coordinator of the doctoral program (see below). This is a prerequisite to allow the participating people to ask for reimbursement.
  
  
• Costs for attending activities other than those organized by the ee doctoral program, for which ECTS credits can be obtained, cannot be reimbursed. For example, a doctoral student can obtain 1 ECTS by attending a conference and presenting his/her research work. Such an activity is not organized by the doctoral school itself and costs for participating in such an activity cannot be reimbursed by this doctoral program.
  
  
• The amounts for the reimbursements given below should be considered as maximum amounts. When possible people should try to reduce these costs, so that the funds granted by CUSO can be used for organizing as many activities as possible.
  
  

Only the PhD students inscribed to the ecology and evolution doctoral program, researchers/teachers and people organizing the activities can ask for reimbursement.
Attendance to the activities is free for all the people belonging to the affiliated institutions (Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel).

There are three main categories of expenses:

1. Staff/management expenses, which include remuneration, transportation, meals and accommodation costs for the teachers/speakers/organizers, the scientific staff collaborators, as well as the administrative/technical staff responsible for the organization of the activities.

Transportation:
People invited from abroad: plane, economy class; train, 1^st class allowed.
People resident in Switzerland: no matter how you travel (by train, car,...), you'll always be reimbursed for the equivalent cost of the half-fare train tickets (1^st class allowed) from your University to the place of the activity.
Bus/Metro tickets to commute from the railway station to the place of the activity are also reimbursed. Taxi fares are not reimbursed.

Accommodation and meals:
Full board (1 night + meals for the day): up to 200 CHF per day per person.
People invited for a seminar are normally reimbursed only for 1 night (1 day full board), because they can come, participate to the event and leave in the time period of 24h. Exception is made for speakers coming from abroad, for which a night before and another after the event are reimbursed (2 nights full board).

Meals (for those not having full board): 40 CHF per meal (up to 2 meals/day) x n. of days of the activity x n. of people.
For activities lasting only 1 day, only 1 meal will be reimbursed.

During a conference or a symposium, maximum of 2 invited speakers and 2 organizers can have 1 meal disposing of up to 60 CHF/person, but this is only in an exceptional circumstance.

For speakers/teachers coming from abroad, the payment of a fixed fee per day without presentation of the receipts is considered as a remuneration and subject to direct tax. Therefore, this way of payment will only be admitted in exceptional cases.

2. Participation expenses, which refers to the traveling, meals and accommodation expenses of the ee PhD students attending an activity organized by the ee doctoral program (http://www.unil.ch/ee/page62567.html). Those of you having an AG ticket can also ask for reimbursement.

There are also 2 more possibilities to ask for reimbursement:

1- The mobility money: see http://www.unil.ch/ee/page57113.html

2- The Biology meeting. Since this is an important meeting for PhD students working in Switzerland, the ee scientific committee agreed to reimburse travel costs to attend this meeting to all PhD students belonging to the ee doc.program.

Transportation:
No matter how you travel (train, car,...), you'll always be reimbursed for the equivalent cost of the half-fare train tickets (2^nd class) from your University to the place of the activity.
Bus/Metro tickets to commute from the railway station to the place of the activity are also reimbursed. Taxi fares are not reimbursed.

Accommodation and meals:
Full board (1 night + meals for the day): up to 120 CHF per day per person.
Meals (for those not having full board): 25 CHF per meal (up to 2 meals/day) x n. of days of the activity x n. of people.
For activities lasting only 1 day, only 1 meal will be reimbursed.

For activities that take place out of town, with common hosting of teachers/speakers and participants: up to 180 CHF/day/person, regardless of their status (professor, student).

3. Operating expenses, cover primarily the material of consumption, other than any durable equipment. Subsidies of publication can be considered in the operating expenses, but they should not be included in the budget of a particular activity and they require a justified separated request.

The restrictions of the CUSO will have to be respected and any going beyond the budget will be charged to the prticipant.

All other expenses that do not belong to these categories are not reimbursed.

• Fill out the participants/teachers form indicating the costs and your bank account (IBAN, if you come from abroad). Sign it.
• Attach all the receipts.
• Hand in or send the form + receipts to the doctoral program coordinator (see below).
  
  

Every payment is then carried out directly by the accounting office of the CUSO.

Except for train tickets, you always need to provide the appropriate receipt/invoice. Bus/Metro tickets to commute from the railway station to the place of the activity are also reimbursed, but you need to provide the tickets.

Note for the participants: you'll be reimbursed only if your participation to an activity has been certified. Thus, make sure you sign the "list of participants" when you attend to an activity. The person in charge of the activity is responsible of collecting signatures and sending this list to the coordinator of the doctoral program. Be careful, this list is NOT equivalent to the presence certificate required for the recognition of ECTS!!

Nadia Bruyndonckx,
Biophore building - room 3111
University of Lausanne
CH-1015 Lausanne

Nadia Bruyndonckx
Coordinator of the Inter-University Doctoral Program in Ecology and Evolution
Tel: +41 (0)21 692 4244
Email: nadia.bruyndonckx(at)unil.ch

CUSO:
Denis Billotte
General secretary's office
Tel: +41 (0)32 724 89 13
Email: denis.billotte(at)unine.ch

Valérie Pittet
Accounting office
Tel: +41 (0)32 724 89 12
Email: Compta.Cuso(at)unine.ch

Anne-Lise Baume
secretary
Tel: +41 (0)32 724 89 11
Email: Compta.Cuso(at)unine.ch

You can find more information under this page www.cuso.ch