John Z. Duling Grant Program

INTRODUCTION

The John Z. Duling Grant Program was established and funded by a bequest from the estate of John Z. Duling of Indiana, a strong advocate of research who in 1972 proposed the establishment of the ISA Research Trust. The goal of this program is to provide start-up or seed funding to support innovative research and technology transfer projects that have the potential of benefiting the everyday work of arborists. John Z. Duling Grants may be used to support exploratory work in the early stages of untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas and approaches. Examples may include application of new approaches to research questions, or application of new expertise involving novel disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives.

APPLICATION PROCESS

TREE Fund will accept completed applications only between August 1 and October 1, 2025. To apply, fill out an application on our online portal – by clicking here.

Letters of Intent (LOI) need to be completed before September 15, 2025. Your LOI must clearly identify the Principal Investigator and Institution who will be contracted for the work should your application be approved.

TREE Fund will evaluate whether your LOI concept meets all of our application criteria and is deemed to have a reasonable possibility of success given the year’s research priorities. If and only if your LOI is approved, TREE Fund will send you a notification and open the application to you.  TREE Fund determinations on whether an LOI meets the application criteria are final and not negotiable.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

Application Requirements can be found here.

Projects are expected to be completed within one to three years with a maximum grant award of $25,000. No project may receive more than one award from this program.

For 2024, the John Z. Duling Grant Program will focus on Propagation, Plant Selection, Development of New Varieties, and Planting/Establishment and Arboriculture Theory and Practice. TREE Fund welcomes research proposals and applications from a wide range of academic and technical disciplines, of both a qualitative and a quantitative nature.

TREE Fund does not fund the following types of projects, and will not accept applications for such work:

• Grants to individuals;
• Projects that are primarily municipal tree surveys or assessments;
• Tree planting programs;
• Studies focused on traditional forestry and timber production, agroforestry, and ecology and conservation of forested and other natural areas,
• Product testing primarily for the benefit of the company that manufactures the product.

 

Past John Z. Duling Awards

2023 was awarded to Dr. Thomas Whitney with Davey Institute on project, “Efficacy of Aphidoletes aphidimyza predator releases to control aphid populations on linden street trees.”

2022 was awarded to Dr. Darrell Murray with Tarleton State University on project, “Urban Ecosystem Regeneration by Increasing Stand and Genetic Diversity.”

2021 was awarded to Dr. Jose Delpiano with University of the Andes in Brazil on project, “Computer Vision for Hazard Tree Identification and Assessment.” See Research Report Here