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Dependent Care Fund

The Dependent Care Fund for Short-term Professional Travel (DCF) is intended to provide financial assistance to scholars who would like to travel for a professional event that will advance their academic careers, and who also have child care or adult dependent care obligations. DCF grants are awarded to defray the incremental costs due to added care giving needs incurred as a result of traveling for career purposes. Such costs may include those associated with transporting a dependent and/or a caregiver to a conference location or research site, extra dependent care at home while the recipient is traveling, or on-site care at a meeting.

For example: An assistant professor has children who ordinarily attend day-care. The assistant professor plans to attend a 2-day conference in Chicago in order to present the results of his research. Because the conference requires overnight travel, the assistant professor must bring his children with him. Conference organizers have arranged for on-site day-care while scholars make their presentations.

In this case, the assistant professor could apply to the Dependent Care Fund to cover the airfare for his children as well as the cost of the on-site day-care at the conference.

Another example: The situation is the same, except that the children are ordinarily cared for by a live-out nanny who comes to their home in Somerville. The conference organizers have not made arrangements for on-site care, so the assistant professor plans to bring along the nanny to take care of his children while he attends the conference. The daily cost for the nanny ordinarily amounts to approximately $200/day, but given that the conference requires care away from home, the cost for the nanny may increase to $250/day.

The assistant professor could apply to the DCF to cover the airfare for his children and the nanny, and he could also request funds for the extra $50/day for the nanny to provide off-site care.

DCF awards may be used in conjunction with existing benefits offered through Parents in a Pinch and the Back-Up Care Advantage Program, which both have services in many American cities and abroad.

The DCF is primarily intended to assist tenure-track faculty, but limited funds are available on a competitive basis for benefits-eligible postdoctoral fellows. Please note that for HMS/HSDM, only Quad-based faculty and postdocs are eligible.

Scholars may apply for up to two grants within a given academic year, up to maximum of $1,000 in funding per academic year. Payments to employees will be treated as additional compensation and made through the regular payroll system at the recipients' Schools. DCF awards are considered taxable income by the Internal Revenue Service.

Requests should be submitted via the online form. Within 14 days of their return, grant recipients must submit receipts for for the DCF-funded expenses. If the qualifying expenses are less than the grant amount, repayment will be required.

Please send receipts to:
Fiona Chin
Holyoke Center 876
1350 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138

Applications must be submitted at least 30 days prior to the event for which a grant is requested. (For example: for expenses associated with a June 10th event, the DCF application would need to be submitted to the March 1st deadline.) DCF recipients are expected to complete as soon as possible after they return from the grant-funded event a 2-minute online survey on how the DCF award contributed to their professional development.

Applications are reviewed four times per year. Deadlines for academic year 2008 are:
September 21, 2007
December 3, 2007
March 3, 2008
June 2, 2008

Questions may be addressed to Fiona Chin in the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity: fiona_chin@harvard.edu.

 

Note for FAS faculty:
Tenure-track FAS faculty are additionally eligible for awards from the FAS Dependent Care Fund and should apply first to the FAS fund. The FAS DCF also has a $1,000 funding cap per scholar, per academic year. Please note that the FAS fund accepts rolling applications throughout the year. To apply to the FAS fund, please use the application below, and the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity will forward your submission to the FAS Office of Academic Affairs for consideration.

Dependent Care Fund Application

* = required field

1. Applicant Information

*Name

*Email

*Phone

*Title

*School

*Department

*Name of department's
payroll administrator
*Email for department's
payroll administrator
*Length of appointment (in years)

*Number of years worked at Harvard University

2a. Dependent(s) Receiving Care

*Name

*Age

*Relationship
to Applicant
*Address Line 1

Address Line 2

*State

*Zip/Postal Code

2b. Dependent(s) Receiving Care

Name

Age

Relationship
to Applicant
Address Line 1

Address Line 2

State

Zip/Postal Code

2c. Dependent(s) Receiving Care

Name

Age

Relationship
to Applicant
Address Line 1

Address Line 2

State

Zip/Postal Code

3. Event Associated with Request

*Name

*Type of Event

*Date

*Location

*Applicant's Role
in the Event

4. Request for Funds (length guidelines are noted in parentheses)

* Travel and Accommodations for Dependents
DCF grants are awarded to scholars traveling to professional events that result in incremental care giving costs. Please describe the travel and accommodations for dependents and/or coverage for planned care that you are requesting. Please also include an itemized budget and a brief justification statement describing the necessity of each line item. (2-3 paragraphs)
(Note: DCF awards do not cover meal expenses)
* Academic Relevance
Please describe how this event is important to advancing your academic career. (1-2 paragraphs)
* Regular Dependent and/or Planned Care Coverage
Please describe your regular dependent and/or planned care coverage. (1 paragraph)
*Total Amount Requested ($)
* = required field