Grants and Writing Resources for Trent University

At the 54th annual Southern Ontario Undergraduate Student Chemistry Conference in April 2026, six Trent undergraduates won Best Oral Presentation awards. Twenty-four presented, and Trent called it its strongest performance at the conference to date. In November 2025, a forensic science and business student won a national Fessenden-Trott Scholarship as one of four Ontario students selected. The English Department's Timothy Findley Creative Writing Prize carries $550.

Writing Prizes

The English Department awards the Timothy Findley Creative Writing Prize each year for a piece of fiction, poetry, drama or creative non-fiction of up to 30 pages. It carries $550. Any student registered in at least one Trent course that academic year can enter, and a committee of three judges the entries. The department lists winners back to 1999.

Presenting and Funding Research

Master's and Ph.D. students compete in Trent's Three Minute Thesis, explaining their research to a general audience in three minutes with a single slide. The 2026 final at Market Hall in Peterborough awarded three placings and an Audience Choice prize. Undergraduate and graduate researchers also present at the annual Molecules, Cells & Systems Research Symposium, and Ancient Greek & Roman Studies holds its own Undergraduate Student Conference.

Physics has a new donor-funded research prize for undergraduates. A second-year physics student became the first recipient of the Dr. Ian Affleck '71 Physics Undergraduate Research Prize in 2026, which supports his summer research on birefringence.

Student Journals and Theses

The Journal of Undergraduate Studies at Trent (JUST) is peer-reviewed and takes essays and research from any discipline written while the author was a Trent undergraduate. Graduates have a year after finishing to submit.

Graduate theses completed since 2013 are online in the Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection, which holds 1,350 items. Print copies of earlier theses are kept in the Trent University Archives for viewing in the reading room, and the library's theses and dissertations guide explains how to find them.

Writing Support

Academic Skills offers free one-on-one appointments with instructors in person, by video or by email, plus workshops and online how-to guides. The Durham GTA campus has its own team and will give written feedback on a completed draft by email.

Graduate students have their own programming. It includes writing conferences, feedback on grant applications and personal statements, the Graduate Student Writers' Group, and a fall Grad Skills Retreat with sessions on thesis preparation and literature reviews. Academic Skills doesn't edit or proofread.

For a final edit before submission, our PhD-level editors work with Trent students at every level. See our Trent University dissertation and thesis editing page, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.