BHF Programme Grants

BHF Programme Grants

Funds major cardiovascular research programmes through infrastructure-grade grants to strengthen real-world implementation.

The British Heart Foundation Programme Grant is the BHF's flagship mechanism for funding sustained, large-scale cardiovascular research programmes at established UK institutions. Unlike project grants, there is no formal funding cap; proposals are evaluated on the scale, scope, ambition, and potential for impact of the proposed work. Awards run for five years initially, with an interim review at the midpoint, and can be renewed through a successful renewal application. The Programme Grants Committee, comprising chairs and committee members, meets four times per year and bases decisions on external peer review. The full decision process takes up to nine months from submission of the full application.

The process is two-stage. Applicants must first submit a preliminary outline 18 months before their expected start date; they are advised to allow one month for outline consideration before the full application is invited. The BHF recommends submitting the full application at least 12 months before the intended start to accommodate the committee timetable. There are no closing dates. Fundable costs include salaries for technicians, research assistants, and postdoctoral staff; consumables directly attributable to the programme; essential equipment; and up to £2,000 per year for travel to scientific meetings. PhD studentship salaries cannot be included.

Eligible principal investigators must be senior or talented mid-career researchers with an internationally recognised profile and a strong track record of project grant support, based at an established UK research institution. The BHF explicitly welcomes proposals that bring expertise from disciplines beyond traditional biomedical fields — for example, engineering, physics, or data science applied to cardiovascular research. Institutions hosted outside the UK are not eligible. Because of the long lead time, researchers planning major five-year programmes should begin preparing preliminary outlines well in advance of their intended programme launch.