Travel expenses are outlined in the grant as covered for scientific meetings. However, the NIH says that use of your institutional allowance is regulated by your department, not the NIH. So...my plan is to submit my travel expenses to my department and see what happens. If they deny it, I will try to find "scientific meetings" in the areas of my interviews. However, these meetings often have high registration costs, so using funds for the meeting just to get a plane ticket might not be worth it.
The fact that they cover the fees for the exam as well as for applying for residency is enough to offset my dissatisfaction of their travel reimbursement policy.
-g
