Official Travel & Absences

From January 1st, 2024:

Please note that travellers are no longer authorised to book their travel arrangements on their own and claim reimbursement via the EDH travel document.

Egencia was launched as CERN’s new travel agency on January 1st and should be accessed to check travel arrangements availability via the link https://cern.egencia.ch or directly from the EDH Travel document via the dedicated button (with the added benefit that some information is transmitted from EDH to Egencia).

A training session (in French) was held on December 19th and another one (in English) on January 10th.

Details and recordings can be found in Indico.

1. Absence and duty travel request

Prior to travel it is obligatory to:

  • Obtain prior approval and purchase the corresponding tickets, at least 2 weeks before the travel, using the following EDH document.
    • Please use budget code 39100, unless you hold a grant code.
  • Register your absence via EDH, mentioning in the comments field the EDH Travel document

1.1 Private stay

If part of your travel will be private, for example a longer weekend in your destination, with a return to Geneva on a Sunday instead of the Friday or Saturday morning, please enter the date that you will fly back to Geneva on the EDH travel document.

The specific dates for the private part of your travel are requested under the ‘Absence’ section of the EDH travel document. This is necessary for the adjustment of the subsistence in accordance.

Any travel that is not direct from/to Geneva, due to personal reasons, will be reimbursed based on the cheapest mean of public transport from/to Geneva.

2. Transport travel expenses

Tickets should be purchased via Egencia after having completed the necessary approval process in the EDH travel document.

If you are travelling by plane or train, the information that is entered in the fields; ‘from’ and ‘to’ as well as the dates and times that you enter in the EDH travel document will be used later by the secretariat/travel agent to search for flight/train proposals for you, once the Travel request has been fully approved.

A budget envelope for transport is calculated automatically and appears on the EDH travel document. It corresponds to 900CHF for a continental trip to a single destination and 2000CHF for an intercontinental or multiple destination trip.

Please note that if a private car must be used (this is discouraged except when no suitable public transport / bulky material to transport and no rental car are available), this should be properly declared, so that the vehicle is covered by the CASCO insurance policy taken out by CERN, should an accident occur. The travel will then be reimbursed at the equivalent of the cheapest means of public transport.

All car rentals at the destination of the travel, should also be booked with Egencia.

3. Daily travel allowance (DTA)

CERN shall pay a daily travel allowance (DTA) to cover accommodation, meals and miscellaneous expenses incurred during duty travel. That amount is indicated on the EDH travel document, once you have filled in your travel dates and final destination.

Please note that the number of meals indicated in the DTA does NOT include breakfast. (Breakfast is considered as being part of the hotel costs). The meals are lunch and dinner.

The DTA is paid from the time of departure of the plane, train or car (if the entire trip is undertaken by car) to the time of arrival of the plane, train or car at destination.

Please note that the DTA shall not be paid when all travel expenses (i.e. transport, accommodation and meals) are paid directly on behalf of the traveller, by CERN or a third party. However, if you do have fees that fall in the miscellaneous category for which you would like to receive reimbursement, please attach the corresponding invoices to the EDH travel document.

4. Duty travel claim

Travel claims can only be reimbursed up to 6 months after the return to CERN. Please do not leave it too late before submitting your expenses.

On returning from your travel please make sure to sign and complete the EDH Travel document. You should receive an automated notification inviting you to do this, on the date of your return to CERN.

For more information, the Duty travel procedure can be found here.

For medical assistance in the destination country, please contact the International SOS Assistance Center.