2025 Heart and Stroke Foundation Grant-in-Aid

Eligibility

In order to be eligible to apply for the GIA competition, Applicants must meet the following criteria:
a. Principal Investigators (“PI”) and Co-Principal Investigators (“Co-PI”) must have a full-time academic or faculty appointment (i.e., at minimum, at the Assistant or Clinical Assistant Professor level) at an eligible Canadian institution at the time the application is submitted.
b. Applicants holding lecturer/clinical scholar of similar university appointments that are of lower tier than Assistant Professor appointments are not eligible to apply as PI and Co-PI.
c. The date of first faculty appointment will be based on the date listed in the BioSketch under First Faculty Appointment. Please ensure your BioSketch is updated and correctly identifies a valid appointment including that it is full-time under the employment section (B.4.4 BioSketch).
d. For any application with a PI and Co-PI, should the PI be deemed ineligible, the entire application will be withdrawn from the competition. There will be no appeal process for applications deemed ineligible.
e. Applicants holding adjunct appointments at an academic institution must submit a letter from their dean/chair/division director to clarify that through their specific appointment they are accorded protected time for research. The letter is required to quantify the amount of protected time available, their access to research infrastructure and their access to other resources necessary to conduct the proposed research study. Failure to include this explanatory letter with all required components will result in the withdrawal of the application (without appeal).
f. At the time of submission, and for the duration of the Recipients are ineligible if they hold or have already held funding, directly or indirectly, from the tobacco industry.

Summary

The Heart & Stroke Grant-in-Aid (GIA) program provides operating funds to support important, pertinent, novel research in the areas of heart disease and/or stroke. GIA funding promotes research discovery, exploration and innovation across all health research themes. Knowledge gained from scientific findings contributes to the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health of Canadians through prevention, treatment, and recovery.

Heart & Stroke offers support for projects in cardiovascular or cerebrovascular research. This support may be provided to successful GIA Applicants (“Applicants”) for a maximum of four (4) years. GIA funds may only be used to support research conducted in Canada. All grants become tenable July 1 following the announcement of the competition results.

Full submission guide available here

Submission Instructions:

1. Applicants must complete a registration for the funding opportunity using the Heart & Stroke’s electronic grant and award management system CIRCUlink before accessing and submitting the application. Note that registration for the competition closes three (3) hours prior to the submission deadline.
2. Complete Full Application on the HSF CIRCUlink system and download a preview copy as pdf
3. To initiate internal approvals, complete the Pre-Award/Application record in RMS (https://research.ucalgary.ca/conduct-research/additional-resources/resea...), attach the pdf preview of your completed Application, and submit for approvals from your department head and/or faculty Associate Dean (Research). *Important: when submitting in RMS, please ensure that you allow time for academic approvals prior to the Research Services review deadline of 12:00pm on August 25, 2025
4. Once these approvals are obtained, RMS will automatically forward the Application record to Research Services for institutional review and approval.
5. Research Services will review, provide feedback (by email) if necessary, and will provide the institutional approval. If digital or wet-ink signatures are required, we will provide the capping institutional signature and will advise when ready.
6. Full Applications, including any supplementary documentation, should be submitted to the agency via the portal on August 28, 2025 by 1:00PM Mountain Time

Overhead

Not applicable

Application deadlines

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

NOTE: 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.