ESRF users affiliated to institutions of ESRF contracting parties and scientific associates can be subsidised by the ESRF for travel, accommodation and meal expenses directly related to the execution of the approved public experiment, according to the ESRF user travel rules and in particular to the deadlines described in article 22.6.

According to the ESRF travel rules for users, the ESRF books and financially contributes to the most economical ticket available at the time of the request; these are usually 2nd class train tickets and economy-class flight tickets.

All reimbursed users MUST submit a travel request in SAP Concur.
This travel request has to be submitted and approved as early as possible and no later than 14 days prior to the outgoing (home lab to ESRF) travel date.
No reimbursement can be made if an approved travel request does not exist.

Link to the e-travel application “SAP Concur”: the link will be sent to users by email once they are registered on the A Form for an experiment and will also be accessible from the User Portal in the Experiment sessions list in the "further actions" column (plane icon). This icon only appears for reimbursed users.

All users receives an email from the User Office when added to an A-form. In addition, all users indicated as "reimbursed" in the A-form receive a second email from the Travel Office. Please read these emails carefully as they contain the clear instructions to follow - if the rules are not followed, reimbursement will not be possible. 

Travel request

Important: All reimbursed users MUST submit a travel request in SAP Concur.
This travel request has to be submitted and approved as early as possible and no later than 14 days prior to the outgoing (home lab to ESRF) travel date.
No reimbursement can be made if an approved travel request does not exist.

The approval of the travel request will mean that users are aware of the level of reimbursement from the ESRF before making their trip.

For the preparation of the travel request,

• Reimbursed users are invited to book their pre-paid air/train tickets directly via SAP Concur using the online booking feature; this booking populates the travel request header automatically, and users are then asked to complete their travel expenses estimation with any other type of travel expense;
• Low-cost flights do not appear in the online booking options since a pre-reservation is not possible; if you wish to reserve a low-cost flight, or any other flight that respects the ESRF travel rules (most economical with some flexibility depending on early booking - see next section) but does not appear in the online booking feature, please request it in the list of travel expenses or contact the Travel Office (traveloff@esrf.fr);
• Ensure all expected travel expenses are included in the travel request, including any shuttles, tolls etc required for transfer from the laboratory/ESRF to the airport/train station, and that the submission of the travel request is fully completed ("Submit request" button);
• Any expenses not mentioned in the travel request will not be covered by the ESRF later (beyond 10% of the total amount of the request, and in absence of a special agreement from the ESRF);
• Please read carefully and fully all emails sent to you from the ESRF User and Travel Offices, and follow the instructions given. If you have any questions or need any help, please do not hesitate to contact us (User Office: useroff@esrf.fr or Travel Office (traveloff@esrf.fr).

Expense claim

SAP Concur enables the creation of the expense claim from the approved request with automatically pre-filled expenses. The user will then be asked to upload the certified expense receipts and submit their claim electronically.

The ESRF recommends that users download the SAP Concur mobile application on their smartphone (accessible either from the App Store or Google Play) in order to facilitate their reimbursement claim procedure. By taking photos of the travel receipts using the SAP Concur application, the receipts are certified and so the paper travel tickets are no longer required for their reimbursement by the ESRF.

For users who don’t wish to use the SAP Concur mobile application:
It is still possible to submit the expense claim electronically in SAP Concur. However, as the receipts won’t be certified by the application the user will have to scan each receipt individually and attach it to the corresponding expense in the SAP Concur application in order to submit the expense claim. In addition, the user must send the original paper travel expenses receipts via mail together with a paper version of the expense claim from the SAP concur interface.

Help and assistance

Several video tutorials and training documents have been created to guide you through these new procedures - we recommend that you watch them carefully before creating your first travel request (and expense claim), to become familiar with the software.

If you need further help, please contact:

• ESRF Travel Office    or ESRF User Office  
  For assistance with your travel booking or expense claim submission.
  Monday to Friday - from 8.00 to 12.00 and 13.00 to 17.00 - +33 (0)4.76.88.24.17

Early booking ensures more options and cheaper flights and so, to encourage early booking, the ESRF financial contribution to flight and train tickets is higher for tickets that are booked early by the user.

The flexibility in the ESRF financial contribution for tickets booked more than 21 days in advance of travel, less than 21 days in advance of travel and less than 14 days in advance of travel are indicated in the table below.

Important note: the "no reimbursement" rule for travel booked less than 14 days before travel is strictly enforced since 1st February 2024 (it had been suspended during the COVID pandemic due to the significant international travel disruptions).

It is not possible to submit a travel request in SAP Concur less than 14 days before the outgoing travel date of the user. Since users will not be reimbursed without a submitted and approved travel request, this means that no reimbursement will be made for users who have not submitted their travel request at last 14 days before the outgoing (home lab to ESRF) travel date.

Example: a user wishing to travel to the ESRF on Monday 15th July will have until Monday 1st July inclusive to submit the travel request in SAP Concur. From Tuesday 2nd July, it will not be possible to create the travel request in the ESRF travel software and no ESRF contribution will be made towards the user travel costs.

Exceptions to this rule will only be made if the invitation for the experiment was sent less than 6 weeks before the experiment start date.

Principal Investigators of public experiments must ensure submission of the A-form in a timely manner (ideally 6 weeks, latest 4 weeks before the experiment) to ensure the registered reimbursed users have time to make their travel requests and avail of the preferential conditions.

Late submission of an A-form can result in users not being eligible for reimbursement.