The American Heart Association (AHA) has issued a request for applications for its 2026 Innovative Project Award program. This award will fund 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. Research deemed innovative may introduce a new paradigm, challenge current paradigms, look at existing problems from new perspectives, or exhibit other uniquely creative qualities.
The Innovative Project Award (IPA) promotes unexplored ideas; therefore, preliminary data is not accepted as part of the proposal. Proposed work should not be the next logical step of previous work, but should have a high probability of revealing new avenues of investigation, if successful. The idea proposed here should not have been submitted in whole or in part in a previous proposal for AHA support.
The AHA and American Headache Society will also co-fund an Innovative Project Award related to the effects of migraine or other headache disorders on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health.
$100,000 per year, including 10% indirect costs, will be awarded for 2 years.
Eligibility criteria include:
- Be an AHA Professional Member at the time of pre-proposal submission.
- Hold a doctoral degree or equivalent at the time of award activation.
Please see RFP for full criteria.
To Apply:
- This is an open RFP (UCSF may submit an unlimited number of applications).
- Follow application instructions in RFP, conferring with your Grants Officer as needed. Please notify your Grants Officer as soon as possible of your intention to apply to ensure that they will have enough time to support your application.
- Pre-proposal deadline is Wednesday, December 10, 2025. If you are invited to submit a full proposal, the deadline will be March 5, 2026.
For more information and to review complete application instructions and eligibility requirements, please visit https://professional.heart.org/en/research-programs/aha-funding-opportunities/innovative-project-award.