2025 Heart&Stroke Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

Eligibility

In order to be eligible to apply for the PFA competition, Applicants must meet the following criteria: 

• As of the application deadline date, Applicants must be Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada or Protected Persons under subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada).
• Applicants must hold or be completing either (i) a PhD or (ii) a regulated health professional degree. At the time of submission, Applicants must either (i) have a position as a full-time Postdoctoral Fellow or Clinical Fellow at an eligible Canadian institution; or (ii) have applied for the position of full-time Postdoctoral Fellow or Clinical Fellow at an eligible Canadian institution with a start date of no later than December 31, 2026.
• Applicants must submit confirmation from their Host Institution of being enrolled/accepted as a full-time student; or have submitted an application for full-time admission, in a Postdoctoral or Clinical Fellowship program.
• Clinical Fellows must be in a research stream.
• Partial Postdoctoral Personnel Awards for less than one (1) year of funding are not available.
• Applicants must have an identified research Supervisor based at an eligible Canadian institution where the research will be undertaken.
• Applicants may not hold, or be on leave from, an independent research position.
• At the time of submission, no more than five (5) years or sixty (60) months may have passed since the completion date of either the applicants (i) a PhD degree or (ii) a regulated health professional degree. Note that the eligibility period may be extended resulting from career interruption due to extenuating circumstances such as parental leave(s), illness etc. The period of eligibility will be extended by the equivalent duration of the eligible interruptions(s).
• At the time of submission, and for the duration of the award, Recipients are ineligible if they hold or have already held funding, directly or indirectly, from the tobacco industry.

Summary

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (“Heart & Stroke”) Personnel Award programs provide salary support to Canada’s top researchers across the career continuum. This support helps ensure the training, retention, and success of Canada’s cardiovascular and cerebrovascular researchers. Heart & Stroke is contributing a total of up to $400,000 CAD for the Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards (“PFA”). The objective of the competition is to increase the number of researchers and clinician-scientists in Canadian universities and research institutions devoted specifically to cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular health.

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

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 fellowships@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.

For all successful PFA Applicants (“Recipients”), Heart & Stroke will contribute a maximum of $70,000 ($35,000 per year for up to two (2) years), and the Applicant’s institution (“Host Institution”) will contribute at least the same amount. The maximum amount contributed by the Host Institution will be determined by the institutional stipend policy for Postdoctoral Fellows and/or Clinical Fellows. Funds from the Host Institution must come from non-Heart & Stroke related sources of funding. At the time of submission, the Host Institution must provide two (2) independent signatures on the Signature Form committing to the annual contribution should the Applicant be successful.