2026/27 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. At the time of submission, the Applicant must have a full-time appointment at the Assistant Professor level or above at an eligible Canadian institution. 

b. The Applicant must have an MD, PhD, or equivalent degree. 

c. At the time of submission, no more than five (5) year or sixty (60) months 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 BioSketch under First Faculty Appointment. 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). 

d. Applicants must have an identified one (1) mentor and provide a co-signed letter of the Mentorship & Training Plan. 

e. The Applicant should clearly demonstrate the potential to become an independent investigator.  

f. Partial awards of less than one (1) year are not available to New Investigator Award Applicants. 

g. Applications for this award must be supported by the university or institution at which the Applicant will conduct the proposed research program. The Host 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. 

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. At the time of submission, and for the duration of the award, Applicants 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”) New Investigator Award (“NI”) program is a salary award to support early-career investigators who have demonstrated excellence in their doctoral and post- doctoral training and wish to establish their own independent research career (“Applicants”). Salary awards provide an added incentive for researchers to continue or begin their program of cardiovascular or cerebrovascular research within 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 portal, CIRCUlink. A detailed CIRCUlink User-Guide to assist in navigating the system is available, and all Applicants are strongly encouraged to review it in advance of starting an application to optimize user experience.  

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 1, 2025.  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 4, 2024 - 1 PM Mountain Standard Time (3pm EDT).