PhD Studentships Grants

Scope

We fund research focused solely on heart diseases and proposals must clearly demonstrate potential benefits for heart disease patients. Projects targeting conditions like stroke, diabetes, or peripheral arterial disease fall outside our remit and will not be considered.

Purpose

PhD Studentships provide training for a career in research. The student explores an original research question in depth gaining skills and experience.

The Heart Research UK PhD Studentship has the same remit as the Translational Research Project grant.

Eligibility

• Open to UK-based researchers at universities, research institutions, or NHS Trusts.
• The lead applicant is expected to have a contract (fixed term or tenure) which covers the proposed duration of the grant. If the lead applicant does not hold a contract for the duration of the grant, the application must include a co-applicant that does.

Award details

• Value: the maximum award is £122,500
• Duration: 42 months

Timeline

• Grant applications accepted from March each year
• Closing date for applications: early June 2026
• Awards announced: November 2026

How to apply

• All applications must be submitted online using FlexiGrant, our Grants Management System.
• New users will need to register before they submit an application. Existing users should sign in with their email address and their password and should update their profile if necessary.
• Log onto the online application portal, click ‘Available Grants’ on the left-hand menu and select the appropriate grant type.
• Click the ‘Start’ button next to the appropriate grant to begin your application.

How Applications are chosen

We are a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and as such we follow the AMRC’s high standard and recommended principles of expert review to ensure that we fund only the best research projects in universities and hospitals.

1. All applications will be subject to an initial review of eligibility against the scope of the grant call and our research strategy. Applications which do not meet these conditions will be rejected at this stage.
2. All grant applications are assessed through our expert review process which includes carefully selected external reviewers. We aim to receive three external reviews for each application.
3. In addition, reviews are submitted by up to three members of the HRUK TRP Medical Review Panel (membership is shown below), as well as our Research Advisory Group which is made up of people with lived experience who are part of our Patient and Public Network .
4. Following expert review, the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Medical Review Panel conduct a further triage to shortlist the applications to take to the panel meeting. The shortlisted applications are discussed and scored, and the highest funding applications are awarded.
5. All applicants who present to the Medical Review Panel are notified of the outcome of their application shortly after the meeting. We also share written comments from the external reviewers.

In 2025, we received 11 PhD Studentship applications and awarded one project.