Travel and Safety

Involving international travel in an international research proposal is fairly standard. However, there are many risk and safety issues that should be noted along with the standard visa and cultural questions. Below you will find information to assist in hosting international travelers, as well as facilitating the travel of your principal investigators, students, and research assistants.

Managing Risk

Some institutions have formalized policy in place for managing risk associated with international travel, while others are less centralized. You will find in this section resources for anticipating and mitigating risk associated with traveling internationally – including common export control, flight, document, safety, illness, and insurance issues.

Visa and Immigration Issues

Visa and immigration issues will vary from country to country, but there exists common mobility issues which are addressed here. Always ensure that your researchers research the visa requirements of host countries early and prepare their travel, staff, and equipment accordingly.

Cultural Practices and Protocol

Culture-specific practices and protocol often delay international projects. Misunderstandings in communication, terminology, conceptions of time, and business practices can all cause project issues if they are not adequately addressed early. Some of these issues are already discussed here. This section focuses primarily on protocol and practices surrounding foreign delegation visits and hosting.

Templates, Presentations, and Other Resources

Are you wondering what not to do on a project? Have a story where everything went as expected (does this Holy Grail exist within global collaborations)? Did you learn something important in an instance that you would like to share with the community? Find these cases and other “I wish I knew…” examples here.