AHA Predoctoral Fellowship Grant

AHA Predoctoral Fellowship Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: American Heart Association
Amount: Up to US $69,548
Last Updated: July 24, 2025

Summary

The AHA Predoctoral Fellowship aims to enhance research and clinical training for pre-doctoral students pursuing careers in cardiovascular health. Applicants must be enrolled in a relevant doctoral program and demonstrate collaboration with a mentor. The fellowship provides an annual stipend of $28,224, plus health insurance support and project funding. Eligible candidates are full-time students who have completed initial coursework and can commit to research efforts. This opportunity fosters the development of independent researchers in the field.

Overview

The purpose of the predoctoral fellowship is to enhance the integrated research and clinical training of promising students who are matriculated 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 cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health. The trainee and mentor should collaboratively provide a thoughtfully planned, systematic proposal aimed at clearly answering an investigative question in cardiovascular, cerebrovascular or brain health research. (5-page limit). A fellow must have primary responsibility for the writing and the preparation of the application, understanding that the mentor will play a significant part in providing guidance to the applicant. Because the fellow receives only a stipend from the award, additional monetary support for the proposed work MUST come from the mentor's laboratory. Therefore, the proposal will likely be related to the mentor's currently funded work. The mentor should clarify the role the applicant played in developing the proposal, the relationship of the proposal to ongoing work in the mentor's laboratory, and how the proposal will contribute toward the training and career development of the applicant. A new fellow may not have had adequate time to generate preliminary data; therefore, applicants may present preliminary data generated by the mentor. The assessment of preliminary data, whether generated by the mentor or the applicant, should be put into perspective so that bold new ideas and risk-taking by beginning investigators are encouraged rather than stymied. Submission of an application to the AHA with identical or significantly similar content as a submission by another investigator is prohibited. Also, the submission of an application to the AHA with identical or significantly similar content from a mentor to a grant program and his/her fellow to a fellowship program is prohibited. In such cases, both applications may be removed from funding consideration. If a grant application is submitted by the sponsor of a fellowship application, both applications may be funded if there is no duplication of aims. Award The AHA does not pay indirect costs on fellowships.AHA does not require use of the NIH salary cap.Annual Stipend: $28,224 - AHA's stipend matches the published NIH stipend for predoctoral fellows at the time the AHA begins to accept proposals.Plus $4,550 per year for health insurance.Stipend may be used to further supplement health insurance, however, the health insurance allowance may not be used for any other purpose.Project Support: $2,000 per year, in addition to the stipend.No limit on any line item (travel, computer, equipment, etc.). International travel is permitted and does not require prior AHA approval.Award Duration: One or two years

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. At the time of application, the applicant must be:enrolled in a post-baccalaureate PhD, MD, DO, DVM, PharmD, DDS, DrPH, or PhD in nursing, public health, or equivalent clinical health science doctoral student who seeks research training with a sponsor prior to embarking upon a research career.a full-time student working towards his/her degree.At the time of award activation, the candidate must have completed initial coursework and be at the stage of the program where they can devote full-time effort to research or activities related to the development into an independent researcher or a related career aimed at improving global cardiovascular health.Applicants are not required to reside in the United States for any period before applying for American Heart Association funding. However, AHA research awards are limited to U.S.-based non-profit institutions, including medical, osteopathic, and dental schools, veterinary schools, schools of public health, pharmacy schools, nursing schools, universities and colleges, public and voluntary hospitals and others that can demonstrate the ability to conduct the proposed research. An awardee must maintain an AHA-accepted visa throughout the duration of the award. Please refer to AHA Application Resources for acceptable visa types. You must be a member of this organization to apply for this award - become a member. Join or begin the membership process well before the deadline. The AHA expects all mentors associated with training/mentored research awards to maintain active AHA membership, as well.