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This is the Travel Funding Policy referred to in the SPAR Mentor Agreement and SPAR Mentee Agreement. Last updated October 5, 2026. Changes apply going forward.

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This policy covers travel expenses. For other research expenses, see Project Expense Policy.

SPAR mentors may request funding for their mentees to travel to a conference to present SPAR research, provided the paper or poster has been accepted at a competitive, peer-reviewed venue. We don't fund travel to attend conferences without an accepted submission, or to present at venues that accept all or nearly all applicants.

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To request travel funding, message us in your requests channel on Slack or email [email protected] with the paper, the venue, who would travel, and an estimated budget (a request form is coming soon).

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Mentee attendance

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For main conference papers in NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ACL, and EMNLP:

We will fund a maximum of 3 mentees per team of publishing co-authors. You may request an exception to this and provide your reasoning in the form. (For example, we may consider a 4th slot for teams with exactly 4 mentees where everyone contributed equally.)

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For workshop papers and venues not listed above:

We will typically fund 1 mentee per team of publishing co-authors, though we may fund 2 depending on the cost of the travel, the potential career benefits of attending, and any fairness concerns. If you’d like to request more than 1 funding slot, please provide your reasoning in the form.

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You must nominate specific named mentees for funding. If you have a larger team and can’t invite everyone, please nominate the mentees who contributed most substantially to the research.

As a general rule, we do not fund mentor travel. However, you may request an exception to this and provide your reasoning in the form. (For example, we may consider funding mentors if no mentees are able to attend and attendance is a requirement for paper acceptance, or if the mentor stands to benefit significantly from attendance and lacks other funding sources)

Travel policy

• We can cover conference registration. Try to get early bird tickets if possible, and use nonprofit discounts if available (Kairos is a nonprofit).
• Book an economy or basic economy flight.
  • One checked bag, seat selection, and in-flight Wi-Fi are covered. We also cover extra legroom (if < $100), and lounge access (if < $50) for flights over 8 hours.
• Book your flight as early as possible.
• While traveling, you can spend up to $90/day on snacks and meals.
• Alcohol isn't covered.
• Book a hotel that's reasonably priced for the destination. Aim for under $200/night. You can go up to $250/night where local prices make that necessary. The only time you may exceed $250/night is to book the conference's official room block, and even then, the rate must not exceed $350/night. Please try to book before the room-block deadline to secure the discounted rate, since rooms and rates are released after the cutoff.
• Ride-sharing (e.g. Uber) is okay for program-related travel (e.g. between your hotel and a conference venue), but not for tourism or personal trips.

Terms

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Funded travel is voluntary. As both agreements say, travelers accept the risks of transportation, lodging, and event attendance and release Kairos from claims for travel-related injury, death, loss, or damage (this doesn't cover gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud by Kairos). Travelers hold their own health and travel insurance, and Kairos-arranged coverage applies only where we say so in writing. Travel spending follows the Project Expense Policy. Kairos doesn't fund travel for participants under 18.

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