Early Career Awards

To meet the eligibility criteria for Early Career awards, an applicant must be active in research and within 10 years of completion of terminal degree or highest certificate (e.g., MSc, PhD), or within 10 years of completing medical fellowship or residency, as of the award application date. Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, instructors, and research associates are welcome to apply.

Early Career Investigator awards are designed to recognize endeavors by early career investigators in research activities and to encourage continued research careers. Early Career Investigator awards must also comply with the rules and guidelines developed by the Committee on Scientific Sessions Program if held in conjunction with the Scientific Sessions or Specialty Meetings.

Eligibility Criteria

• An individual may not compete for similar Early Career Investigator awards from other American Heart Association scientific councils that will be presented at the same meeting.
• Previous winners and finalists for these awards are not eligible to re-enter the same competition in subsequent years. However, applicants may apply for a different award program in which they haven't previously been a winner or finalist.
• Only one manuscript and abstract per candidate will be considered for awards. The manuscript may have co-authors, but the applicant must be the first and presenting author. The presenting author of an accepted abstract must be registered for the Scientific Meeting.
• The work covered by the submitted abstract must not been presented at a national or international meeting or world congress before the date and time of presentation at the AHA scientific event. If so, the abstract must be withdrawn.
• Abstracts associated with a published manuscript can be presented at an AHA scientific event if the manuscript was published after the time the abstract was submitted to the event, however the abstract will not be published as a part of the journal publication.
• Women and underrepresented racial and ethnic groups are encouraged to apply.

Evaluation Criteria

Panels of distinguished researchers, scientists, nurses, clinicians, and academicians representing the breadth of cardiovascular disease and stroke will judge applications. Awards that do not involve abstracts may use different evaluation criteria. Please consult the specific award Web page for detailed evaluation criteria.

How to Apply or Make a Nomination

Please see the individual award information pages below for specific documents required when submitting an application or nomination file. Awards requiring an abstract must be submitted to an AHA Scientific Meeting before the online submission site abstract deadline. Your abstract control number will be needed on the award application form.

A username and password previously set up through online registration at Professional Heart Daily (PHD) will be necessary to access the Council Awards Application System. AHA Professional Members who are creating an online profile for the first time should make sure to register using their AHA membership identification numbers.

An active AHA Professional Membership is required of all award applicants. If you are joining the AHA to apply, please wait for your AHA member number to arrive from AHA Member Services via e-mail before creating an online profile and starting your application file. We suggest that new members join the AHA no later than one week prior to the application submission deadline for the member ID number to be processed and delivered in time for the application deadline. The membership number will be required on the award application form.

1. Click the link for the Council Awards Application System.
2. Sign in with your Professional Heart Daily username and password.
3. Follow these instructions to set up your profile in ProposalCentral. Setting up your ProposalCentral profile will only need to be done the first time you login to apply for an American Heart Association Council Awards. Please note that the grant maker named American Heart Association is for AHA Research Awards and is a separate log in.

For more detailed information on ProposalCentral, also included are additional materials on specific ProposalCentral functionality.

• How to Create an Application in ProposalCentral (PDF)
• How to Register a ProposalCentral User (PDF)
• How To Add Publications in ProposalCentral (PDF)