The American Heart Association (AHA) invites applications for the National Scientist Development Grant (SDG). The SDG objective is to support highly promising beginning scientists in their progress toward independence by encouraging and adequately funding research projects that can bridge the gap between completion of research training and readiness for successful competition as an independent investigator.

Deadline: January 15, 2008. Deadline Note: Applications are accepted twice a year, in January and July. Awards are nonrenewable with award duration of four years. An awardee may hold the Scientist Development Grant only once (national or affiliate).

An SDG awardee may not hold another AHA award concurrently. Successful applicants who hold any postdoctoral fellowship or training award must resign that award when activating the SDG award. The SDG is an independent award; therefore, training or fellowship awards (such as the NRSA) cannot be held simultaneously.

At the time of application, the applicant must:

• be a faculty or staff member initiating an independent research career, usually at the rank of instructor or assistant professor (or their equivalents);
• have his or her M.D., Ph.D., D.O., D.V.M., or equivalent doctoral degree;
• have one of the following designations: U.S. citizen, permanent resident, pending permanent resident, E-3 (specialty occupation worker), H1-B Visa (temporary worker in a specialty occupation), J-1 Visa (the applicant must have an H-1B or equivalent by the award activation date), O-1 Visa (temporary worker with extraordinary abilities in the sciences), or TN Visa (NAFTA professional); and
• meet AHA citizenship criteria throughout the duration of the award.

At the time of award activation, the applicant must have a faculty or staff appointment and no more than four years will have elapsed since the applicant's first faculty or staff appointment (after receipt of doctoral degree) at the assistant professor level or its equivalent (including, but not limited to, research assistant professor, research scientist, staff scientist, etc.). Applications may be submitted for review in the final year of a postdoctoral research fellowship or in the initial years of the first faculty or staff appointment. Applicants must meet institutional requirements for grant submission at time of application.

Individuals are ineligible for the Scientist Development Grant if they have been or are currently funded (extramurally) for more than one year at a level greater than $95,000 per year in direct costs. An SDG and an NIH mentored K-series award cannot be held concurrently.

Please see the program web site for full details:  http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=9713