Research
BHF announces £10 million Cardiovascular Grand Challenge research funding competition
The British Heart Foundation has launched a landmark Cardiovascular Grand Challenge programme, a bold new research competition to support ambitious ideas, bring together visionary teams, and accelerate breakthroughs for people with cardiovascular disease.
Our first Grand Challenge competition will invite applications under the theme ‘artificial intelligence (AI) powered transformation in cardiovascular health – from discovery to clinical practice.’
Recent developments in AI methodologies provide unprecedented opportunities to gain insight from big data that can improve understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Combined with the increasing availability of data, we believe that the time is right to invest in the field at scale to deliver impactful advances for patients.
Transformational impact
Our Grand Challenge awards will support collaborative, large-scale research programmes that address areas of unmet need or opportunities in specific thematic areas and drive transformational impact for patients.
With generous donations from its supporters, we aim to make at least one award of up to £10 million over a maximum of five years in the first round of the competition to support the most compelling proposal(s) under the AI theme. The first competition will open for outline applications in April 2026.
Teams entering the competition will be expected to bring together knowledge, talent and resources from multiple fields and sectors, working on a scale that goes above and beyond our standard research programmes.
Applications must be led by a principal investigator based at a UK research institution. Proposals may involve international partners who bring defined and unique contributions to the research.
To deliver the ambitious new programme, we want to build a network of visionary partners and donors to fund the Cardiovascular Grand Challenge competitions over a series of themed calls.
Pushing the boundaries
Professor Bryan Williams, our Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, said: “Research has driven incredible advances over the decades, saving countless lives in the process. But despite this, cardiovascular disease remains the world’s biggest killer.
“At the British Heart Foundation, we want to go further, faster to power the next breakthroughs. We’re launching Cardiovascular Grand Challenges – awards of up to £10 million to realise the potential of cutting-edge areas of science and bring new skills, perspectives and expertise into cardiovascular research. Through these awards, we want to fund the boldest ideas from the most exciting teams that can have a transformational impact on our patients’ lives.
“Artificial Intelligence is enabling progress in understanding, preventing and treating cardiovascular disease at a pace we would have thought impossible just a few years ago. For our first grand challenge, we want to make a big bet on at least one idea that pushes the boundaries in AI research to deliver real impact for patients.”
Application criteria
Applications for Cardiovascular Grand Challenge funding must meet the following criteria:
- Timely and ambitious proposals that utilise state-of-the-art expertise and technologies that can deliver a bold leap forward.
- A clear path to impact with defined milestones, as well as demonstrating familiarity with the regulatory requirements for clinical implementation and outlining how these will be met.
- Led by an outstanding, multi-disciplinary team with a track record of delivering large-scale research programmes, and the ability to engage partners from multiple fields and sectors.
- Able to leverage support through matched funding and in-kind contributions from partnering academic institutions, commercial and industrial organisations, and/or other funders.
- Involvement of patients and people with lived experience of cardiovascular disease, both in the development of their proposal and throughout the life of the research programme.
- Robust management and governance structures and processes that adhere to BHF equality, diversity and inclusion principles and provide a strong foundation for successful delivery.
The Cardiovascular Grand Challenge will be a two-stage process. Applicants will submit an initial outline application, and shortlisted teams will then be invited to submit full applications.
The outline application portal will open in April 2026, with a deadline for applications of August 2026.