This year, HFSA launched the Heart Failure Research Foundation to address the significant need for more dollars dedicated to heart failure research. The Foundation will fund heart failure research through two major programs – Emerging Leader Grants and Transformative Research Grants. The HFSA Board of Directors and Research Committee recently outlined more details on how the philanthropic dollars raised by the Foundation will be invested in these two programs.

Emerging Leader Grants will support early-stage investigators launching their research career. HFSA understands treating heart failure takes a talented, diverse team, as does advancing our scientific knowledge. To encourage more heart failure researchers, this program will provide 1-year renewable grants, up to $150,000 annually, to investigators who have completed their research degree or clinical training and are within 5 years of their first faculty appointment.

Transformative Research Grants funds novel research designed to acquire new clinical application knowledge for patient care. We are interested in providing initial funding to established researchers to explore early-stage ideas that traditional funders may ignore yet have the potential for high reward in the long-term. These grants will give preference to interdisciplinary teams and provide funding up to $250,000 annually over 1-2 years.

Both grant programs will be overseen by the HFSA Research Committee. Each program will also utilize an application model that requires a Letter of Intent (LOI) followed by an invitation to submit a full proposal to qualifying applicants. 

HFSA’s goal is to build a long-term, sustainable model for the Foundation that relies upon private philanthropy to fund heart failure research in the coming decades. Our initial milestone is to reach $250,000 in funding. Once this threshold is reached, we can launch the first round of LOIs for the Emerging Leader and Transformative Research Grants. We are currently at 20% of this philanthropic goal. We hope to hit this milestone by the end of 2023, with the first round of grantmaking occurring in 2024.

The long-term vision for the HF Research Foundation is to create a multi-million-dollar grantmaking effort that will help close the gap in heart failure research funding. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans, but just the 33rd most funded research area by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH invests $2.7 billion annually in heart disease. By comparison, they invest $7.5 billion annually in cancer research, the second leading cause of death in America.

Of note, HFSA will be covering all the administrative costs of the Foundation, so 100% of your donation will go directly to funding heart failure research.

To learn more and support this effort, visit www.hfsa.org/foundation.