Mentoring Team for the Career Development Award

Note: The applicant cannot submit the application without your documents; therefore, it is important that you meet the applicant's deadline.
Send your documents electronically to the applicant. The applicant will upload the documents to the application.

Mentoring Team

The award requires, at a minimum, a primary mentor and a secondary mentor who will provide counsel and direction and scholarship oversight. Up to two additional mentors may be named to the mentoring team. A mentoring team approach with a committed lead mentor is an essential piece. Applicants should clearly define each person’s role as part of the mentoring team.

The primary and secondary mentors should have, most importantly, prior history of successfully mentoring early career investigators to independence, track records of high-quality investigation, academic accomplishment, and should be invested in the career progress of the early career scientist. The mentors’ primary function is to work with the applicant to develop the application and training plan, make necessary arrangements with the institution to conduct the proposed research work, enforce the appropriate timelines for accomplishment of the work, and guide the awardee toward a productive career in his/her chosen field.

• One individual must be identified as the primary mentor who will coordinate the candidate’s research. The primary mentor should be an active investigator in the area of the proposed research and be committed both to the applicant’s career development and to the direct supervision of the applicant’s research. The mentors must document the availability of dedicated sufficient research support (e.g. time and effort) and facilities for high-quality research.
• At least one mentor must be from outside of the applicant’s institution or department.
• One mentor should be committed to guiding the applicant’s future grant writing endeavors (such as, how to write an R01 or equivalent).

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Required Documents (specific instructions below)

Primary Mentor:
Primary Mentor’s Training Plan (4-page limit)
Mentor's List of Past and Current Trainees (3-page limit)
Biographical Sketch/Bibliography (5-page limit)

Secondary Mentor:
Mentor's List of Past and Current Trainees (3-page limit)
Biographical Sketch/Bibliography (5-page limit)
Mentor’s Letter (3-page limit)

Additional Mentors
Biographical Sketch/Bibliography (5-page limit)
Mentor's Letter (3-page limit)

Format/Type Requirements

Follow the format and type requirements below when creating your documents.

• No more than 15 characters per inch (cpi) or an average of no more than 15 cpi (cpi includes symbols, punctuation and spaces)
• No less than ¾" margins on all four sides
• Maximum of 50 lines per page
• Arial font style, 12-point font size for Windows users; Helvetica font style, 12-point font size for Macintosh users
• Only Portable Document Format (pdf) files are accepted

The documents are required as separate files. Please pay attention to page limits.

Primary Mentor’s Training Plan
(primary mentor only; 4-page limit)

Detail your plan for:

• Proposed research training of this applicant
• Assessment of the applicant’s skills
• Assessment of the primary mentor’s skills that will be applied/learned by the applicant
• Funds available to the applicant from the primary sponsor

The narrative should include the following items:

1. Describe research in progress in the mentor's lab.

2. Describe your plan to develop the applicant's research capabilities. Include:

• Mentor’s role and personal commitment to the applicant
• Trainee’s accessibility to the mentoring team
• The sequence in which the applicant will be given increasing personal responsibility for the conduct of research

3. List related training or course work that will be required for specific technical skills or methods the applicant will expect to master (include the names, degrees and titles of other individuals who will be involved in training the applicant). Specify timelines for course work and training completion.

4. Title a separate section, “Instruction in responsible conduct of research and rigor and reproducibility”. Evaluation of the application will include adequacy of the proposed training in relation to a sufficiently broad selection of subject matter, such as conflict of interest, authorship, data management, human subjects and animal use, laboratory safety, research misconduct, research ethics. AHA does not require submission of the NIH RCE form.

• Include the names, degrees and titles of all individuals who will be involved in training the applicant in the responsible conduct of research.
• List the specific characteristics of the training program (i.e., the level of trainee experience, and the particular circumstances of the trainees). 

5. Address the relationship of the research training plan to the career goals laid out in the applicant's career development plan.

6. Provide your assessment of the applicant. 

7. Title a separate section, “Mentor’s Qualifications”. Address:

• What special skills or perspective can you offer to the applicant?
• How do you intend to support the growth of the applicant’s academic career (e.g., supporting subsequent grant applications; developing research ideas; writing manuscripts; guiding the applicant to reach independent goals; facilitating professional activities outside of the institution [regional, state, national organizations], creating a network of peers and advisors)?
• Ideas for teaching the values, rules and operating procedures in academic medicine, such as how the merit and promotion system works and helping the applicant advance to the next level.
• A testimonial of what mentoring support has meant to you while establishing your career. Give specific examples of anything attributable to mentorship you received, such as goals attained, projects completed, promotions, grants or awards earned, obstacles overcome, etc.
• What do you value most about mentorship, and what do you find to be most rewarding about it?

8. Resources: Describe the space and source of all funds (external and internal) available to the applicant, including departmental and institutional funds.

Mentor's List of Past and Current Trainees
(primary and secondary mentors only; 3-page limit each)

You may use either portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) orientation.

Copy and paste the chart below onto your formatted document or insert a new table with seven columns.

Using the following table format, list predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees under the mentor's; supervision (within past five years, current and pending).

Indicate the source of stipend support for all current and pending trainees. Indicate in parentheses under the trainee name where the training with the faculty member occurred, if at a different institution. Exclude medical interns and residents, unless they are heavily engaged in laboratory research. For each trainee indicate period of predoctoral or postdoctoral training and any degree received; previous institution, degree, and year awarded prior to entry into training; title of the research project; and for past students/trainees, their current positions; or for current students, their source of support.

Predoctoral Trainees of [Mentor's Name]

Postdoctoral Trainees of [Mentor's Name]

Mentor's Biographical Sketch/Bibliography
(All members of mentoring team; 5-page limit each)

Upload your NIH biosketch OMB No. 0925-0001 and 0925-0002 (Rev. 10/2021 Approved Through 01/31/2026). It is not necessary to reformat to AHA page specifications.

If you do not have an NIH biographical sketch, you may contact apply@heart.org to request a template for creating one.

Mentor's Letter
(Secondary and additional mentors; 3-page limit each)

Describe:

• Your role in supporting the applicant and the project, including accessibility and your personal and professional commitment.
• Space and/or resources you are making available to the applicant.
• Your relationship to the applicant and to the other members of the Mentoring Team.
• What special skills or perspective can you offer to the applicant?
• How you intend to support the growth of the applicant’s academic career.
• Ideas for teaching the values, rules and operating procedures in academic medicine, such as how the merit and promotion system works and helping the applicant advance to the next level.
• A testimonial of what mentoring support has meant to you while establishing your career.
• You might give specific examples of goals attained, projects completed, promotions, grants or awards earned, obstacles overcome, and anything else you feel is attributable to mentorship you received.
• What do you value most about mentorship, and what do you find to be most rewarding about it?
• How will you support the applicant with his/her subsequent grant applications, developing research ideas or writing manuscripts?
• How will you guide the applicant to reach his/her independent goals?
• Will you facilitate the applicant in professional activities outside of the institution (regional, state, national organizations)?
• How will you help the applicant create a network of peers and advisors?