AHA Research Grant Funding Opportunities


The American Heart Association is the largest non-profit, non-governmental funder of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular research in the U.S. Many research programs are offered annually and others are one-time grants. Some programs require pre-proposals, with full proposals by invitation only. Watch this page for updates on funding opportunities and proposal deadlines. 

​​Please visit the Application Resources page for answers on AHA policies and restrictions, application preparation, and general guidelines.

Investigator-Initiated Research

For these funding opportunities, applicants initiate the research focus. Qualification for these awards is largely based on the principal investigator’s career stage.

Topic-focused Funding

These programs support specific areas of science deemed critical to achieving our mission and strategic objectives. The AHA co-funds some projects with other organizations to advance common goals.

Data Science Grants

These opportunities fund researchers from anywhere in the world working in the field of data science. Grants support investigators in all career stages, from trainees to senior scientists.

AHA Registry Research

AHA/ASA Quality Programs produce data from millions of patient records in vast databases for advancing scientific research. Investigators can submit proposals to conduct research using this data.

Investigator-initiated Research Opportunities

Open Topic Research Funding Opportunities

AHA Predoctoral Fellowship
Proposal deadline: Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Enhances the training of promising students in pre-doctoral or clinical health professional degree training programs and who intend careers as scientists, physician-scientists or other clinician-scientists, or related careers aimed at improving global health and wellbeing. Within this award, additional collaboration money has been designated through the AHA/CHF Congenital Heart Defect Research Awards and by the Barth Syndrome Foundation and California Walnut Commission.

AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship
Proposal deadline: Thursday, September 5, 2024
Enhances the training of postdoctoral applicants who are not yet independent. The applicant must be embedded in an appropriate investigative group with the mentorship, support, and relevant scientific guidance of a research mentor. Within this award, additional collaboration money has been designated through the AHA/CHF Congenital Heart Defect Research Awards and AHA/VIVA Physician Research Award and by the Barth Syndrome Foundation and California Walnut Commission.

AHA Institutional Research Enhancement Award (AIREA)
Proposal deadline: Thursday, September 12, 2024
Stimulates research at educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees related to scientific research training. Eligible institutions may not have been major recipients of NIH support. Awards provide funding for small-scale research projects related to cardiovascular diseases and brain health, enhancing the research environment at eligible institutions, and exposing students to research opportunities.
Career Development Award
Proposal deadline: Wednesday, December 5, 2024
Supports highly promising healthcare and academic professionals in the early years of first professional appointment to assure the applicant’s future success as a research scientist in the field of cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular disease research.
Submission deadlines for 2025 funding are yet to be announced for the following:
Collaborative Sciences Award
Fosters innovative collaborative approaches to research projects that propose novel pairings of investigators from at least two broadly disparate disciplines. The proposal must focus on the collaborative relationship, such that the scientific objectives could not be achieved without the efforts of at least two co-principal investigators and their respective disciplines. Within this award, additional collaboration money has been designated through the AHA/VIVA Physician Research Award and by the California Walnut Commission.
Established Investigator Award
Supports established investigators in rapid career growth phase, with records of accomplishments and showing extraordinary promise. Candidates will have a demonstrated commitment to cardiovascular or cerebrovascular science disciplines that support the AHA’s mission, as indicated by funding and publication history and scientific accomplishments. Candidates should propose an innovative/novel research direction that challenges existing paradigms and employs novel concepts, approaches, or technologies.
Innovative Project Award
Supports highly innovative, high-impact research that could ultimately lead to critical discoveries or major advancements that will accelerate the field of cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular research. The idea proposed here should not have been submitted in whole or in part in a previous proposal for AHA support.
Institutional Award for Undergraduate Student Training
This award is made to qualified institutions that can offer a meaningful research experience that supports the AHA mission that encourages undergraduate college students from all disciplines to consider research careers.
International Visiting Professorship Award
Novel pilot program to bring internationally based scientists to the U.S. for one week to foster scientific exchange -- to expand research experiences and collaborative opportunities for the awarded Visiting Professor and their U.S.-based host in research that aligns with the AHA mission.
Merit Award
Funds investigators with stellar track records of accomplishment, demonstrated by federal or equivalent funding from multiple sources and excellent publication records with substantial impact, who have the potential to move a field of science forward with creative approaches that are aligned with the AHA's mission.
Transformational Project Award
Supports highly innovative, high-impact projects that build on work in progress that could ultimately lead to critical discoveries or major advancements that will accelerate the field of cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular research. Research deemed innovative may be built around an emerging paradigm, approaching an existing problem from a new perspective, or exhibit other uniquely creative qualities.

Topic-focused Funding Opportunities

Topic Focused Research Funding Opportunities

Health Equity Research Network (HERN) on Community-Driven Research Approaches – Partner Hub
Required pre-proposals due by Tuesday, March 26, 2024
The key outcome of this HERN is the establishment of new models for community-driven research that can be scaled and used as a foundation for shifting norms, paradigms and practices within all domains of health research. Each Partner Hub must have two research projects and be represented by a community-based organization and an academic institution. The collaborations between and among the Partner Hubs build momentum around both systems change and knowledge of a particular issue, making it an ideal mechanism to meet the interrelated objectives.

Health Equity Research Network (HERN) on Community-Driven Research Approaches – Community Engagement Resource Center
Required pre-proposals due by Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Community Engagement Resource Center (CERC) will, under leadership of the Director, incorporate a multidisciplinary approach to provide capacity building, training, evaluation, and the management of a Community of Practice for the full Network. The CERC will facilitate engagement across the Partner Hubs and service as a coordinating center, facilitating capacity building, study optimization, communication, evaluation, and a Community of Practice. 

The Ralph L. Sacco Scholars Program in Brain Health
Proposal deadline: Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Jointly funded by American Academy of Neurology and American Heart Association
Two-year postdoctoral fellowship support for work focused on how to maintain a healthy brain over a person's lifetime. Candidates should be engaged in research focused on prevention of brain disease

Submission deadlines have closed for 2024 funding for the following programs:

Strategically Focused Research Network (SFRN) on Inflammation in Cardiac and Neurovascular Disease
This SFRN will consist of at least three centers, each of which will propose novel research studies to address this issue. Funded centers will be expected to collaborate on solving the core issues underlying this problem, including via development of a common network-wide collaborative project.

AHA's Second Century Early Faculty Independence Award
To support highly promising investigators in the early years of their first professional appointment as they address one of several possible areas of critical, emerging priority. 

AHA's Second Century Clinical Fellow Research Education Program
Provides funding for cardiology and select neurology fellows in accredited fellowship programs to attend an AHA scientific meeting (Scientific Sessions or the International Stroke Conference, respectively) and gain other training and experience integral to development of research acumen

AHA/ASA/ABF Lawrence M Brass, MD Stroke Research Awards
The American Heart Association and American Brain Foundation provide funding for postdoctoral trainees embarking on careers in clinical neurology, stroke and neurocritical care. Award recipients receive supportive mentorship and conduct introductory pilot studies that will guide future strategies for reducing cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular disease.
Application process is through the American Academy of Neurology.

AHA/Enduring Hearts Translational Research Awards in Pediatric Heart Transplantation
Enduring Hearts and the AHA provide funding for research on improving the life expectancy and quality of life of pediatric heart transplant recipients.

Food is Medicine Initiative
Funded in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation and other organizations, the AHA seeks proposals focused on feasibility and implementation science, specifically achieving high rates of enrollment and engagement, and testing ways to achieve significant short-term changes in healthy eating behavior. Equity is central to this initiative. Ultimately, the initiative’s research aims to generate the definitive evidence needed to provide widespread coverage of food-based treatment options for the millions of Americans living with chronic disease.

AHA and Additional Ventures Collaborative Science Awards in Single Ventricle Heart Disease
Together, the American Heart Association (AHA) and Additional Ventures (AV) invite applications from multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams to support work advancing our understanding of biological mechanisms and drivers of end-organ complications and co-morbidities of single ventricle heart disease and the Fontan circulation.

Data Science Grants

Data Science Grants

Using GWTG Data to Further Address Gaps in CVD
Deadline - for invited applicants only: Friday, May 10, 2024
Using AHA Get With the Guidelines (GWTG) research data in the Precision Medicine Platform (PMP) to further address current gaps in our understanding of cardiovascular disease

AHA Registry Research

 

Using GWTG Data to Further Address Gaps in CVD
Deadline - for invited applicants only: Friday, May 10, 2024

Using AHA Get With the Guidelines (GWTG) research data in the Precision Medicine Platform (PMP) to further address current gaps in our understanding of cardiovascular disease

2024 Holidays

AHA offices will be closed:                                    Altum/Proposal Central will be closed:
Jan. 1 Sept. 2   Jan. 1 July 4
Jan. 15 Nov. 28 & 29   Jan. 15 Sept. 2
May 27 Dec. 23-27   Feb. 19 Oct. 14
July 4     May 27 Nov. 28 & 29

    June 19 Dec. 23-27