Last Update: September 2009

National programs are open to the entire United States.

• Begin your application early to allow all parties time to complete the process. 
• The applicant must submit the completed application to the grants officer selected in the application.  It is the applicant's responsibility to contact the grants officer and/or monitor the status of his/her own application.
• The grants officer is the only person who can submit an application to the AHA.  Check with your grants officer for his/her internal institutional deadline.  Allow plenty of time for your grants officer to review and reject or submit the application to the AHA. 
• Once the application is submitted to the AHA by the grants officer, it cannot be changed or modified in any way.  It will go to peer review as received unless it is withdrawn.
• Refer to Related Items at right of this screen for useful information.
  

Science Focus

The American Heart Association funds research broadly related to cardiovascular disease and stroke.  We support research in clinical and basic sciences, bioengineering, biotechnology and public health.

Applications related to obesity, women and heart disease, and resuscitation are particularly encouraged.  

Objective
This program provides funding for trainees with outstanding potential for careers as physician-scientists in cardiovascular or stroke research during the crucial period of career development that spans the completion of research training through the early years of the first faculty/staff position. The award provides a supportive mentored experience during this period of transition. The award will (1) greatly enhance the awardee's chances of obtaining a high-quality faculty/staff appointment; (2) improve the awardee's success and retention in an investigative career in cardiovascular science; and (3) develop the mentoring skills of the awardee as a potential future mentor.

The award will provide support for beginning physician-scientists for a minimum of one year and a maximum of three years of research training and the first years of the first faculty/staff (or equivalent) appointment, for a maximum of five years of support. It is strongly encouraged that the five years of the award run consecutively, but the applicant and mentor may propose and justify an alternative plan for peer review consideration.

Individual awardees may take the award from the institution providing the research training component to another institution for the career development component (first faculty/staff appointment). The intent is to make the awardee a "free agent" who is empowered to stay at or move from the training institution while retaining the award. The mentor during the faculty stage of the award may or may not be the same person who was the mentor during the training phase.

Disciplines
All basic disciplines as well as epidemiological, community and clinical investigations that bear on cardiovascular and stroke problems.

Target Market, Eligibility

• Physicians who hold an M.D., M.D./PhD., D.O. or equivalent doctoral degree at the time of application submission and who seek additional research training under the supervision of a sponsor/mentor prior to embarking on a career of independent research. 
• Applicants must be enrolled in or have completed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-approved residency or a clinical fellowship program associated with an ACGME-approved residency. 
• Applicants must have completed the clinical portion of their training program by the time of award activation.  The applicant is responsible for identifying and working with a sponsor/mentor to develop the application.  
• Candidates may have had no more than five years of postdoctoral research training (beyond clinical training) at time of application.
• The award is not intended for individuals of faculty/staff rank. 
• At the time of award activation, applicant may not hold a faculty/staff appointment.  The exceptions are M.D. or M.D./Ph.D. with clinical responsibilities who hold a title of instructor or similar due to their patient care responsibilities but who devote at least 80 percent full-time effort to research training.
• The mentor may hold an M.D., PhD., D.O. or other equivalent degree. Because of the strong mentoring component of this award and the importance of developing a meaningful relationship between awardee and mentor, an individual mentor may sponsor only one applicant to the program per year.

Citizenship
At time of application, must have one of the following designations:

• U.S. citizen
• Permanent resident 
• Pending permanent resident.  Applicants must have applied for permanent residency and have filed form I-485 with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and have received authorization to legally remain in the United States (having filed an Application for Employment Form I-765).
• E-3 -- specialty occupation worker
• H1-B Visa -- temporary worker in a specialty occupation
• O-1 Visa -- temporary worker with extraordinary abilities in the sciences
• TN Visa -- NAFTA Professional

Individuals with J1 visas are not eligible.

Awardee must meet American Heart Association citizenship criteria throughout the award.

Exception: Postdoctoral applicants outside the United States at the time of application, and who meet all other eligibility requirements for the Fellow-to-Faculty Transition Award, must provide visa documentation prior to award activation.

Location
The training component of the award may be completed at any accredited institution in the UnitedStates, although U.S. citizens or permanent residents may complete this training portion at a non-U.S. institution. All awardees must complete the faculty component at an institution in the United States.  Applicants are not required to reside in the United States for any period of time before applying for the award.

Budget/Annual Award Amount

Training Stage of Award:

• PI Salary/Fringe: Yes, up to $50,000 (institution may supplement)
• Project Support: Yes, up to $10,000/yr;  travel limited to $3,000/yr, salaries of technical personnel essential to the conduct of the project, supplies, equipment, volunteer subject costs, publication costs; $5,000/yr is available to support mentor salary, projects costs, mentor travel to accompany awardee to professional meetings 
• Fringe Benefits: Yes, included in $50,000
• Indirect Costs: No
• Dependent Allowance: No
• Tuition: No
• Maximum Annual Amount: $65,000

Faculty Stage of Award:

• PI Salary/Fringe: Yes, $90,000 (institution may supplement salary)
• Project Support: Yes, $25,000/yr; travel limited to $3,000/yr, salaries of technical personnel essential to the conduct of the project, supplies, equipment, volunteer subject costs, publication costs; $5,000/yr is available to support mentor salary, projects costs, mentor travel to accompany awardee to professional meetings 
• Fringe Benefits: Yes (included in $90,000)
• Indirect Costs: Yes, $12,000 maximum (10 percent of total award amount)
• Maximum Annual Amount: $132,000

Sample FTF budget (trainee) 
$40,000 - PI salary
  10,000 - plus fringes
$50,000 - Total
  
$15,000 - Project costs ($10,000 + $5,000 per yr. for mentor)
$65,000 - Annual Amount
 
Sample FTF budget (faculty/staff) 
$75,000 - PI salary 
  15,000 - plus fringes 
$90,000 - Total
  
$ 30,000 - Project costs $30,000 ($25,000 + $5,000 per yr. for mentor)
 120,000 - Annual Amount
   12,000 - 10% indirect 
$132,000 - Total year amount
 
Award Duration
Five years, subject to annual review and satisfactory progress.

Peer Review Criteria

Criterion 1 - Evaluation of the Investigator

Assessment of the applicant should account for a third of the overall score.

1. Does the trainee have potential for a research career? 
2. Are the trainee's career plans specified in the application? 
3. Is this supported by the trainee's academic record and the assessment provided by the three letters of reference? 
4. Does the trainee have prior research experience and/or publications?  
5. Is there a clear rationale supporting the need for the proposed training? 
6. What is the sponsor's assessment of the applicant?

Criterion 2 - Sponsor/Training Plan and Environment

Assessment of the sponsor/training plan and environment should account for a third of the overall score.

Sponsor/Training Plan

1. Is the mentor an independent investigator?
2. Does the mentor have the experience to direct the proposed research training, as evidenced by their track record regarding productivity, funding and prior trainees?
3. Does the mentor have adequate current funding to support the fellow's project?
4. Quality of a specific mentoring plan that makes explicit the mentor's ability to guide the awardee's completion of research training and compatibility of the mentor's research area with that of the applicant to support direct acquisition of the appropriate scientific skills and approach.

Environment

1. Does the scientific environment in which the work will be done contribute to the probability of success for the training experience?
2. Is there evidence of institutional commitment?
3. Documented institutional commitment to protect more than 80 percent of the awardee's time for research during the training phase of the award.

Criterion 3 - Evaluation of the Proposal

Together, assessment of these three criteria should account for a third of the overall proposal score.

1. Significance: Does this study address an important problem broadly related to cardiovascular disease or stroke?  What will be the effect of these studies on the concepts, methods and technologies that drive this field?
2. Approach: A new fellow may not have had adequate time to generate preliminary data. Applicants can present preliminary data generated by the sponsor.  The assessment of preliminary data, whether generated by the sponsor or the applicant, should be put into perspective so that bold new ideas and risk taking by beginning investigators are encouraged rather than stymied.
   Are the conceptual framework, design, methods and analyses adequately developed, well integrated, well reasoned, feasible (as determined by preliminary data or the expertise available in the mentor's and/or collaborator's laboratories) and appropriate to the aims of the project?  Does the applicant acknowledge potential problem areas and consider alternative tactics?
3. Innovation:  Is the project original?

Each counts as a third of the overall score.

Applicants should never contact reviewers regarding their applications.  Discussing scientific content of an application or attempting to influence review outcome will constitute a conflict of interest in the review.  Reviewers should notify the AHA if an applicant contacts them.

Restrictions

• Not intended for individuals of faculty/staff rank.
• Since the fellowship is considered a training award, a staff or faculty appointment cannot be held.  (The exceptions are M.D. or M.D./Ph.D. with clinical responsibilities who hold a title of instructor or similar due to their patient care responsibilities but who devote at least 80 percent full-time effort to research training.)
• During the training period, awardees are expected to devote more than 80 percent full-time equivalent effort to research or activities directly related to their development into independent researchers, as opposed to administrative, patient care, or teaching responsibilities. A 75 percent full-time equivalent effort to research is required during the faculty component of the award.
• Current AHA predoctoral and postdoctoral awardees may apply for this award.
• The fellow cannot hold a comparable fellowship award. 
• With one exception, this award may not be held concurrently with another AHA award (national or affiliate). Exception: A Fellow-to-Faculty Transition Award recipient may apply for and receive an affiliate Beginning Grant-in-Aid or Grant-in-Aid during the faculty phase. The awardee may request only project support for these AHA grants, since the Fellow-to-Faculty Transition Award provides significant salary support.
• Current or prior recipients of an AHA Scientist Development Grant, Established Investigator Grant or Established Investigator Award (national or affiliate) are not eligible.
• Prior or current recipients of any NIH K-series awards are not eligible.
• The Fellow-to-Faculty Award is not renewable (an individual may hold this award only once).
• A minimum of one year of research training after award activation is required prior to the transition to a faculty/staff appointment. 
• An applicant may submit only one national application per deadline.
• The same or similar application submitted for the fourth time will be administratively withdrawn.*

Applicants should never contact reviewers regarding their applications.  Discussing scientific content of an application or attempting to influence review outcome will constitute a conflict of interest in the review.  Reviewers are directed to notify the AHA if an applicant contacts them.

Applying to National and an Affiliate
If eligible, an applicant may simultaneously submit applications for affiliate and national awards.  If both are funded, the applicant must choose one award.  A person cannot hold more than one association award concurrently, unless there is a stated exception.  The proposed research plan may need to be adjusted based upon different length of award and dollars available.  The deadline dates may be different for each submission.

Interim Reporting and Progress Assessment
Research Committee assessment of annual progress reports to include research findings, abstracts, and publications. Audit of annual expenditure reports. Non-competing review of information submitted by the awardee at the time of completion of the training portion of the award.

Carryover of funds will be allowed as specified in current AHA policies/procedures. Any publications resulting from this award should acknowledge the American Heart Association's support.

Evaluation
Response to program promotion (application volume).
Publications and citations by others resulting from the AHA-funded projects. Subsequent funding obtained by the awardee. Career progress of award recipients. Assessment of impact of research funded.

Success Rate (January 2009 deadline)
# Applications Reviewed: 37
# Applications Awarded: 5
Success Rate: 13.51 percent

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*An applicant who is unsuccessful in a competition may resubmit the same or similar application three times (the original plus two  resubmissions).