Funding a Sabbatical (Canadian edition)

[Kron3007]

I am about to start my first sabbatical.  It is obviously a weird time for this, but provided that I can travel during this period (in my application I provided contingency plans), I have a few questions about funding it.  I included the Canadian aspect as this will definitely impact the answer to one of my specific questions:

1)  I have a professional development fund that can be used for conference travel.  Can you usually use these (and other grant funds) for sabbatical travel?  I am asking internally for specific answers but I am just curious about norms.  Also, are there any small grants to support this type of thing?  Ultimately, I am ok to travel on my own dime but thought I would ask.

2) I see that in Canada there is an option to convert some of your salary into grant funding for sabbatical, with obvious tax implications.  It seems there are restrictions on this, so I wanted to ask if anyone has done this and has any suggestions?

Thanks for any feedback.

[Morden]

Congratulations on the sabbatical. They are delightful. In my (Canadian) university, the answers to your questions would be

1) it depends. We have personal PD that we can use for books, conferences, equipment, memberships, etc.; it can be used for sabbatical travel. However, we also have PD specifically linked to conference presentation/attendance; it can't be used for sabbatical travel. There are also internal research grants that we can apply for; some people use those for sabbatical travel.

2) I haven't done this, but I know people who have. In fact, I knew one person who always took part of her salary as grant funding so that she could write off some of the books she bought. (The CRA has a list of acceptable expenses on its site--for example, you can claim meals and lodging while traveling, but not if you are living temporarily somewhere). Based on her experience, I would say if you do this, you need to keep careful records of the expenses because the CRA would periodically contact her for more info.

[Kron3007]

Thanks, I am very much looking forward to it.

This is useful information, especially regarding the salary component.  I see some universities have information about this, but mine dosnt seem to have anything.  I will have to ask to see if there are some secret documents...

[Morden]

In our place, the info is hidden within an article of our collective agreement.

[Ruralguy]

I'm US, but we can used normal travel funds for any travel related to professional development as well as ancillary prof dev, such as meeting fees or society memberships.  This goes for any other PD funds that come with a named chair
as well.

Another good source of funding (besides a typical grant) are visitors funds at
national labs and such. I think many big libraries have them too (for humanities and soc sci types).

Of course your institution may have also have some way of getting limited internal funds for these things as well (we do, but its a small amount). That is, over and above typical PD/Travel funds.

[saramago]

With respect to your second point: I've done this twice, it does save some taxes. Do keep receipts, but none of my colleagues have ever had to produce them. It is a financial perk of the sabbatical.

[Kron3007]

Thanks everyone.

Saramago, do you know if there is a secret list of eligible expenses?  It seems that only "research" expenses are allowed but I have not found a very clear definition of this.

[saramago]

Hum.... Your university should be able to tell you that,  as they are the ones granting you that privilege. In my case I was ready to produce plane tickets  and lodging for visits to colleagues during my sabbaticals, but because no one asked to see them, I actually don't know for sure whether that would have been accepted!
But really, there should be no secret , your finances folks should be able to tell you.

[Kron3007]

Yes, it should not be a secret but I have not found the right person here yet (our finance person gave us a heads up that they will be extremely busy for the next week or two so probably not on the top of their list).  Since it is a federal thing, the elegable expenses should be the same for everyone regardless of university.  I did find a summary from uOttawa, so I have some info.

Good to know they may not look too deep (I will still keep receipts etc in case...).

[rabbitandfox23]

Yes, it should not be a secret but I have not found the right person here yet (our finance person gave us a heads up that they will be extremely busy for the next week or two so probably not on the top of their list).  Since it is a federal thing, the elegable expenses should be the same for everyone regardless of university.  I did find a summary from uOttawa, so I have some info.

Good to know they may not look too deep (I will still keep receipts etc in case...).

Could you link the website to the summary from uOttawa? - I'd be curious to see it! Thank you.

[Kron3007]

Yes, it should not be a secret but I have not found the right person here yet (our finance person gave us a heads up that they will be extremely busy for the next week or two so probably not on the top of their list).  Since it is a federal thing, the elegable expenses should be the same for everyone regardless of university.  I did find a summary from uOttawa, so I have some info.

Good to know they may not look too deep (I will still keep receipts etc in case...).

Could you link the website to the summary from uOttawa? - I'd be curious to see it! Thank you.

Sure, here it is::

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://research.uottawa.ca/rms/sites/research.uottawa.ca.rms/files/lignes_directrices_conge_sabbatique_anglaisversion2013.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiD7LPkpcntAhWrAp0JHRHUB58QFjAAegQIAxAC&usg=AOvVaw1n1ig60FetdSLcW6uCCneZ

For what it's worth, I've since found a number of similar resources from a bunch of universities (including mine).  I originally missed it because of the search terms I was using (sabbatical specific).  Some of them are probably more clear that uottawa's.

In my department this is not common as most people use their research funding, but I may still do it for various reasons.

[mamselle]

This may not at all be what you want, but does the Canadian State Department have listings for Meals and Incidental Expenses (M&IEs) that would give you the daily ballpark figure for your claims?

When I was doing grant fund management, these were standard for location and numbers of days, and let you generalize up front, even if you did have to still turn in receipts, etc., for evidence of expenditures.
   
   https://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem.asp

The U.S. State Dept. updates these for CoL and other variables regularly.

M.