American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship 2027: Up to Two Years of Cardiovascular Research Training With a $63,480–$77,076 Annual Stipend

American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship 2027: Up to Two Years of Cardiovascular Research Training With a $63,480–$77,076 Annual Stipend

The American Heart Association (AHA) Postdoctoral Fellowship is one of the most recognized ways for newly minted PhDs and clinical doctorate holders in the United States to fund a defined block of mentored research in cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and brain-health science. The 2027 competition is built around a firm deadline of Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. Central Time, with awards activating on January 1, 2027. Late submissions are not accepted, so the practical planning window closes weeks before that date.

This is not a general postdoctoral salary top-up or an “any topic” award. It is a research-training fellowship organized around a specific project, a specific mentor, and a specific scientific field that must sit inside the Association’s mission of heart disease, stroke, and brain health, broadly defined. If your postdoctoral work fits that scope, the fellowship can pay a competitive stipend and give you protected time to establish yourself as an independent investigator during the vulnerable first years after the doctorate.

This guide explains exactly what the award pays, who fits it, how the application is scored, and how to prepare a submission tuned to this particular program rather than a generic postdoc fellowship.

Key Details at a Glance

Treat the figures above as the anchor for your planning. The stipend is tiered by years of postdoctoral experience, so the exact number you can request depends on how far past your doctorate you are at award activation. Indirect (overhead) costs are not covered, which is a point your institution’s grants office will need to understand up front.

What the Fellowship Offers

The core of the award is a stipend that scales from $63,480 for someone with no prior postdoctoral experience up to $77,076 for someone with seven or more years, layered onto a $12,200 annual health-insurance allowance. On top of that, the fellowship provides $3,000 per year in project support, with at least $1,500 of that earmarked for travel to a national scientific conference. The message embedded in that requirement is deliberate: the AHA wants fellows presenting their work to the wider field, not just running experiments at the bench.

The initial award covers one or two years. Awardees may then compete for a second two-year award, up to a lifetime maximum of four years of AHA-funded postdoctoral support per person. That structure lets the fellowship carry a strong trainee from the earliest postdoc years toward the threshold of an independent faculty position.

It is important to be clear about what the fellowship does not do. The award funds the fellow’s stipend and modest project costs only. Any substantial research expenses — reagents, animals, equipment, core-facility charges — must be covered by the mentor’s laboratory. Indirect costs are excluded. In other words, this is a training award that assumes you are joining an already-funded lab, not seed money to launch a self-standing research program.

Beyond the dollars, an AHA fellowship carries reputational weight. It is a nationally recognized, peer-reviewed award in the cardiovascular and stroke research community. Listing it on a CV early signals to future mentors, program officers, and hiring committees that external reviewers judged both you and your training plan competitive at a formative stage.

Who Should Apply

The fellowship is aimed at people who are genuinely early in the postdoctoral phase. To be eligible you must hold a post-baccalaureate doctoral-level degree — an MD, DO, DVM, PharmD, DDS, DPh, or a PhD in a science, nursing, public health, or other clinical health science field — and you must have no more than five years of research training or experience since that degree, excluding any clinical training. The award is explicitly not intended for individuals who already hold faculty-rank positions.

You must be able to devote at least 80% of a full-time effort to research or research-related activities. That threshold rules out anyone whose schedule is dominated by clinical service or teaching, and it should shape how you and your mentor describe your role.

The best fit is a postdoctoral researcher whose project sits squarely inside the AHA’s mission and who is working under an established, appropriately resourced mentor. If your science only touches cardiovascular or brain health tangentially, expect reviewers to probe that connection hard. The strongest applicants can state in a sentence why their question matters to heart disease, stroke, or brain health, and back it up with a concrete experimental plan.

Eligibility and Citizenship Requirements

Citizenship and immigration status is checked at the time of proposal submission — not at award activation — which matters for planning. At submission you must be one of the following: a U.S. citizen, a permanent resident, a pending permanent resident, a DACA recipient, or the holder of an eligible visa. The eligible visa categories are E-3, F-1, G-4, H-1B, J-1, O-1, and TN. If your status is in transition, confirm where you will stand on the submission date, because that is the date the AHA uses.

Your host must be a U.S.-based non-profit institution with demonstrated research capacity, and you must be working with a qualified mentor. Applicants are also required to be American Heart Association Professional Members at the time of submission, so budget time to activate or renew that membership before you start the online forms.

A few structural limits are worth flagging now. You may submit only one application per deadline. You cannot hold another AHA research award at the same time, and you cannot use a comparable outside fellowship to supplement this one — though topping up from other sources to reach your institution’s required stipend level is allowed. Mentors are capped at supervising four AHA-funded fellows at any one time, so confirm your prospective mentor has an open slot. Finally, if you are promoted to a faculty or staff position during the award, you must resign the fellowship, because it is a training award, not a salary line.

The Application and What You Submit

Applications are submitted electronically through ProposalCentral, which opens roughly eight weeks before the deadline (May 15, 2026 for the 2027 cycle). Every submission requires the signature of a designated institutional representative, so you cannot treat this as a solo effort completed the night before — your grants office has to be in the loop.

The required materials center on a five-page research proposal. Around that, you assemble:

• An applicant biosketch that includes a personal statement laying out your career goals.
• Your mentor’s biosketch and a training plan describing how they will develop you as an independent scientist.
• Three letters of reference. Note the important restriction here: mentors and department heads cannot serve as your referents, so line up other researchers who know your work.
• A budget justification.
• An institutional endorsement carrying the designated representative’s signature.

Because the training plan and mentor commitment weigh heavily in review (more on that below), the mentor’s contribution is not a formality. A vague or boilerplate mentor statement can sink an otherwise strong project.

How Proposals Are Scored

Reviewers score proposals on a 1-to-9 scale across three weighted criteria, and understanding the weighting tells you where to invest effort:

• Mentor’s commitment and training plan — 40%. The single largest factor is not your project but the quality and credibility of the mentorship and the training environment. Reviewers want evidence that your mentor has the track record, resources, and a concrete plan to move you toward independence.
• Fellow’s potential — 30%. Your record, trajectory, and promise as a future independent investigator, drawn from your biosketch, personal statement, and references.
• Research evaluation as a training vehicle — 30%. The project is judged less as a standalone piece of science and more on how well it will train you. A technically sound project that teaches you little may score worse than a slightly less ambitious one that builds a clear set of new skills.

The practical implication: do not write this like a standard grant that foregrounds the science and treats training as an afterthought. Frame the proposal explicitly around your development, and get your mentor to write a specific, personalized training plan rather than a generic endorsement.

Preparing a Competitive Submission

Start with the mentor. Because 40% of the score rides on mentorship and the training plan, your first move should be securing a mentor who is well funded, has a strong record of developing postdocs, and — critically — has an open AHA fellow slot. Have an honest conversation early about whether they will invest real time in a tailored training plan.

Next, sharpen the mission fit. Write a plain-language sentence connecting your project to heart disease, stroke, or brain health, and make sure that connection runs through the whole proposal rather than appearing only in the opening paragraph.

Then build the five-page proposal as a training document. Lay out specific aims, but pair each with the skills, techniques, and scientific judgment you will acquire. Reviewers are asking, “Will this project make this person a better independent scientist?” — answer that question directly.

Handle logistics in parallel. Activate or renew your AHA Professional Membership, confirm your citizenship or visa status as it will read on the submission date, and give your three referees — none of whom can be your mentor or department head — several weeks of notice with a clear summary of your goals. Loop in your institution’s grants office early so the endorsement and signature do not become a last-minute bottleneck.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Treating it like a research grant. The most frequent misstep is centering the science and underplaying the training narrative and mentor plan, which together carry 60% of the score.
• A generic mentor letter. A short, boilerplate mentor statement undercuts the highest-weighted criterion. Insist on specifics.
• Choosing ineligible referees. Mentors and department heads cannot serve as your three referents. Applicants sometimes discover this too late.
• Misjudging status timing. Citizenship and visa eligibility is assessed at submission, not at the January start. Confirm the submission-date status.
• Assuming project costs are covered. The award funds stipend and $3,000/year in project support only, with no indirect costs. Confirm the mentor’s lab will cover real research expenses.
• Ignoring the effort rule. If clinical or teaching duties leave you below 80% research effort, the application is not viable as written.
• Overlooking membership. You must be an AHA Professional Member at submission; forgetting to activate it can block a finished application.

Timeline and Deadlines

For the 2027 award year, the request for proposals posted on April 28, 2026, and the ProposalCentral system opened on May 15, 2026. The application deadline is Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. Central Time. Award notifications go out in December 2026, and funded fellowships activate on January 1, 2027.

Delayed-start requests are permitted for up to six months, which can help clinicians juggling training commitments. Because the whole cycle turns on a single hard deadline with no late acceptance, work backward from August 5: give referees and your grants office several weeks, and aim to have the mentor’s training plan drafted well before the final week.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the same as the AHA Predoctoral Fellowship? No. The Predoctoral Fellowship supports doctoral students still working toward their degree, while this Postdoctoral Fellowship supports researchers who already hold a doctoral-level degree and are within five years of it. The stipend levels and eligibility differ.

How much can I actually receive? The annual stipend ranges from $63,480 for someone with no prior postdoctoral experience to $77,076 for someone with seven or more years, plus a $12,200 health-insurance allowance and $3,000 in project support each year.

Can I renew? Yes. After the initial one- or two-year award, you may apply for a second two-year award, up to a maximum of four years of AHA-funded postdoctoral support in total.

Do I need to already be in a lab? Effectively yes. The award pays your stipend and modest project costs but not major research expenses or indirect costs, so you need an established, funded mentor’s lab supporting the work.

What if I get a faculty job during the fellowship? You must resign the award, because it is a training fellowship for pre-independent researchers rather than a faculty salary.

Can I hold another fellowship at the same time? You cannot hold another AHA research award concurrently or use a comparable outside fellowship as supplementation, though modest top-ups to reach your institution’s required stipend level are allowed.

Official Links and Next Steps

Apply and confirm every current detail through the American Heart Association’s official funding pages at professional.heart.org. Because stipend figures, eligible visa categories, and deadlines can be updated between cycles, always verify against the current request for proposals before you build your budget or forms.

Your concrete next steps: confirm your mentor is AHA-funded and has an open fellow slot; verify your citizenship or visa status as it will read on August 5, 2026; activate your AHA Professional Membership; identify three referees who are not your mentor or department head; and open a ProposalCentral record as soon as the system goes live so you have the full eight weeks to assemble a proposal built around your training, not just your science.