AHA 2027 Predoctoral Fellowship by field of study

Your field of study decides more about an AHA 2027 Predoctoral Fellowship application than the headline suggests. The fellowship funds one to two years of mentored research training for full-time doctoral students at U.S.-based non-profit institutions, with a $29,364 annual stipend, a $4,550 health insurance allowance and $2,000 a year in project support — but only for research in cardiovascular, cerebrovascular or brain health science. A cardiology trainee, a stroke neuroscientist and a health-services researcher working on heart failure readmissions can all be in scope, yet reviewers judge each against the standards of their own discipline. This page maps the fields the fellowship covers, how field choice shapes eligibility and review, and the evidence each field is expected to bring before the August 4, 2026 deadline.

Key Details

Award: $29,364 annual stipend + $4,550 health insurance allowance + $2,000 project support per year
Duration: 1–2 years of full-time mentored research training
Eligible degrees: PhD, MD, DO, DVM, PharmD, DDS, DrPH, or equivalent clinical health science doctoral programmes
Focus area: Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, or brain health research
Eligibility: Full-time doctoral students at U.S.-based non-profit institutions; U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and certain visa holders (F-1, J-1, H-1B, etc.) are eligible
Application portal: ProposalCentral (opens May 15, 2026)
Deadline: August 4, 2026 at 3:00 PM CT
Award start: January 1, 2027

Applicants must be AHA Professional Members at the time of submission and must be supervised by an established investigator with adequate current funding. Three letters of reference are required. Early submission is strongly encouraged as no late submissions are accepted.

Apply on the official AHA website →

Always verify deadlines and details on the official American Heart Association website before applying.

Which fields the AHA predoctoral fellowship covers

The eligible territory is defined by the health problem, not by your department name. Core fields include basic cardiovascular science, cardiology and cardiac surgery research, vascular biology, cerebrovascular and stroke research, neuroscience linked to brain health, epidemiology and population science focused on heart and brain outcomes, nursing and pharmacy research in cardiovascular care, and public health research on prevention. A project in biochemistry, pharmacology or biomedical engineering is in scope when its question is plainly cardiovascular or brain-health; a general-biology project with no such link is not.

How your field changes eligibility

The degree rule is field-sensitive. Eligible degrees listed for the fellowship are PhD, MD, DO, DVM, PharmD, DDS, DrPH or an equivalent clinical health science doctorate, and applicants must be full-time doctoral students supervised by an established investigator with adequate current funding. That structure matters by field:

Basic and translational science PhDs: the straightforward route — your mentor, training plan and research proposal carry the case.
Clinical doctorates (MD, DO, PharmD, DDS, DVM): the research must still be mentored, full-time research training, not clinical service.
Public health and nursing doctorates: eligible where the doctorate and the project sit in cardiovascular or brain-health research.

Citizenship follows the same careful reading: U.S. citizens, permanent residents and certain visa holders (F-1, J-1, H-1B and similar) are eligible, and applicants must be AHA Professional Members at submission.

How AHA review works by field

AHA applications are typically read by reviewers matched to the research area, so your proposal competes against the norms of your own field. A basic-science application is weighed on mechanistic depth, rigour and the feasibility of the experiments within one to two years. A clinical or population application is weighed on cohort definition, outcome measures and statistical power. A brain-health application must make the cerebrovascular or cognitive link explicit rather than assumed. In every field the training plan matters: reviewers ask whether the mentor, the environment and your coursework will leave you a stronger independent researcher, not only whether the project itself is interesting.

Field-specific evidence and course choices

Strengthen the file from inside your discipline. Basic scientists should show preliminary data or mastery of the core technique the proposal depends on. Clinical researchers should show access to the patient population or dataset and a credible analysis plan. Population and prevention researchers should show biostatistics training and a well-defined outcome. Coursework choices that reviewers read as seriousness differ too — advanced cardiovascular physiology for bench scientists, clinical research methods for clinician trainees, causal inference for epidemiologists. Three letters of reference are required; the strongest sets mix a mentor who knows your research with referees who can speak to your standing in the field.

Reading this as a field case? This page covers the AHA predoctoral fellowship from the field-of-study angle only. For deadlines, the full eligibility rules and the complete application route, see the full programme guide, which remains the complete reference for this fellowship.

Frequently asked questions

Which fields of study are eligible for the AHA Predoctoral Fellowship?

Any doctoral field whose research question is cardiovascular, cerebrovascular or brain health — from basic cardiovascular science and vascular biology to stroke neuroscience, cardiology, epidemiology, nursing and public health prevention research.

My department is biochemistry, not cardiology. Can I still apply?

Yes, if the project itself is plainly cardiovascular or brain-health research. AHA judges the research area of the proposal, not the name of your department, and reviewers are matched to that area.

Does my degree type affect eligibility?

The fellowship lists PhD, MD, DO, DVM, PharmD, DDS, DrPH and equivalent clinical health science doctorates. Whatever the degree, the training must be full-time mentored research under an established investigator at a U.S. non-profit institution.

Is competition harder in some AHA fields than others?

Applications are read within their research area, so you are compared with the standards of your own field — mechanistic rigour for bench science, cohort and power for population work — rather than against every applicant at once.