The Trent Foundation was established in 1977 by Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans and her second husband, Dr. James H. Semans, to honor the memory of her first husband, Dr. Josiah Charles Trent. Twice a year, in the spring and the fall, the Fund assists Duke University faculty and staff by providing modest grants for projects whose funding might be difficult to obtain from other sources. With the passing of Ms. Semans, the foundation has transitioned into the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation Endowment Fund.
The Fund is most interested in work that tests new ideas, projects that share cutting-edge work, or conferences or symposium that promote intellectual engagement by the Duke community. We encourage applications from junior faculty.
The Fund offers support to Duke faculty and staff for research projects, invited speakers, seed funding for pilot projects, research service learning if faculty involvement is essential to the project and the student will produce an intellectual product, and other program support. In the case of conferences, we prefer to support those held at Duke, but will consider proposals for those elsewhere. Grants normally average $3,000, with a maximum of $5,000, and are available for one year. A second request for the same project has a diminished chance of funding. If successive proposals are submitted, a summary of previous Trent funding and the relationship of the initial results to the additional request are required.
Deadline: Oct. 28, 2022; April 1, 2022