2025/26 Heart & Stroke - New Investigator Award

Eligibility

• Please contact your department and/or Faculty early to ensure they can support your application, as this grant requires confirmation that the applicant will have 75% of his/her time allocated to the proposed research program. 

To be eligible:

a. A New Investigator may not be in receipt of another major Personnel award from another national funding agency at the same time as holding a Personnel Award from Heart & Stroke. Likewise, an awardee may not concurrently hold a Canada Research Chair and a Heart & Stroke New Investigator, Alberta New Investigator, or an Ontario Clinician Scientist award. In addition, an awardee may not hold two Heart & Stroke Personnel Awards (national and provincial) concurrently. However, an awardee may accept supplemental funding; no greater than 50% of the value of the Heart & Stroke award if it is from a local or provincial funding source.

b. At the time of submission, the applicant must have a full-time appointment at the Assistant Professor level or above in Canada;

c. At the time of submission, and for the duration of the award, award recipients are ineligible if they hold or have already held funding, directly or indirectly, from the tobacco industry.

d. The applicant should clearly demonstrate the potential to become an independent investigator.

e. At the time of submission, no more than five (5) years may have passed since the date of the first faculty appointment at the Assistant or Clinical Assistant Professor level. This would include Adjunct positions in a research track for which the applicant is eligible to write a Grant-in-Aid as a Principal or Co-Principal Investigator. The date of first faculty appointment will be based on the date listed in the Common CV (i.e., under Employment).

f. Applications for this award must be supported by the university or institution at which the applicant will conduct the proposed research program. The university or institution is expected to guarantee the applicant appropriate academic rank and to provide adequate space and facilities for the investigator’s research, commensurate with the status of the individual’s experience and level of support from Heart & Stroke.

g. The applicant must have an MD, PhD, or equivalent degree. h. The Dean and Department Head (or institutional equivalents) must guarantee at least 75% of the applicant’s time will be allocated to the proposed research program. i. The applicant must hold an operating grant in support of the proposed research program at the time of this award; such grant(s) may be from Heart & Stroke and/or other granting agencies. The research grant support has the following additional requirements:

i) For each year of the three (3) years of the award, the recipient must be a Principal or CoPrincipal Investigator on a peer-reviewed grant originating from a national or provincial funding agency, irrespective of the amount of the grant.

ii) The recipient must have at least $30,000 per year of research funding for which the recipient is Principal or Co-Principal Investigator. Heart & Stroke 2024/2025 New Investigator Awards Submission Guidelines Page 12 of 15

iii) Peer reviewed/Non-Peer reviewed funding

• For years one (1) and two (2) of the award, research funding may originate from peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources.

• For year three (3) of the award, research funding must originate from peer-reviewed sources.

Summary

The New Investigator program is a salary award to support new investigators who have demonstrated excellence in their doctoral and post- doctoral training. Salary awards provide an added incentive for researchers to continue or begin their program of cardiovascular or cerebrovascular research within Canada. At the time of submission, the applicant must have a full-time appointment at the Assistant Professor level or above in Canada.

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

Prior to submission, please connect with your Faculty as this is a Salary award - not a research grant, and their eligibility requirements for supporting your application may differ from those of a standard research grant. Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Postdocs, students, and trainees: For fellowships and externally-sponsored research training awards or opportunities, you must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsotrainee@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.

Applications will be completed online using Heart & Stroke’s online system, CIRCUlink. Heart & Stroke will accept a scanned copy of the original signature uploaded into CIRCUlink; electronic signatures will also be accepted.

Full applications, plus approval in the Research Management System (RMS) (https://research.ucalgary.ca/conduct-research/additional-resources/research-management-system-rms), will be required by RSO by noon on September 2, 2024.  Please be sure to select "Submitted for approvals" (Under Save & Progress) in RMS in good time to allow for approvals from your Department Head and/or ADR prior to the Research Services deadline. Consult your department and faculty for more information on their approval processes and timelines. 

Once your RMS record has been approved by Research Services, submit to the agency by their deadline on September 5, 2024 - 2 PM Mountain Standard Time (4pm EDT).