NOW OPEN!
2025 – 2026 Participant User File Research Grant
Letter of Intent Submission
The Call for Participant User File (PUF) Research Grant Letter of Intent (LOI) Now open. Each selected applicant will be awarded up to $15,000 to apply for and complete an STS Participant User File (PUF) application.
Application Requirements
- Personnel Requirements: The Principal Investigator (PI) must currently be an active SCA member in good standing. The PI must currently not be receiving any other SCA research funding. SCA will notconsider applications from PI’s currently receiving other SCA research funding. However, members who currently do receive other research funding from the SCA may serve as a co-investigator on a PUF application. Per STS requirements, the research team must include a STS member surgeon as well as a PhD level Biostatistician.
- Research Work Requirements: The planned research work must not be similar to any previously completed or presently active STS research proposal. A list of current and recently published work based on the STS databases can be found in the STS website. Applicants are encouraged to review the literature as well to ensure there is no overlap between their proposal and previous projects.
Letter of Intent Document Submission Checklist
(All documents will be required to be uploaded as a PDF)
- Letter of Intent(Max 2 Pages): The LOI should detail the proposed title of the project and details of the proposed study, including background, specific aims, the study design, and target patient population or disease process, along with a description of any translational/mechanistic components, if relevant. The LOI must include a statement that the PI/applicants checked and verified that their proposed work is not similar to a previously completed or presently active STS approved research proposal and that they have checked and verified that the key variables of interest for their project are collected in the STS database. The LOI should describe the roles of the key personnel including PI, co-investigators, cardiac surgeon who are also an active STS member, and a PhD level biostatistician. Their backgrounds/connection to the topic area, the key personnel, and the unique skills or resources they and their institutions bring to the project.
- PI Biosketch(Max 5 pages): In the new NIH formatting. Please do not include Co-investigators Biosketches.
Award details:
- Total award amount: $60,000 for a total up to 4 grants awarded at $15,000 each.
- Award duration: One time award.
- Letter of Intent (required) deadline: September 25. 2025
- Notification of invitation for full application: November 5, 2025
- Application deadline for invited applicants: December 5, 2025.
- Award recipients announced: January 2026.
- Click Here for full application requirements.
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR LETTER OF INTENT
2024 – 2025 Winners:
Andra Duncan, MD, MS – Cleveland Clinic
Fredrick Wilhelm Lombard, MBChB, FANZCA – Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Tiffany Williams, MD – UCLA
Jessica Zvara – MD – University of Virginia School of Medicine
2023 – 2024 Winners:
Jiapeng Huang, MD, PhD – University of Louisville
Harikesh Subramanian, MBBS, MS – University of Pittsburgh
Isaac Y. Wu, MD – University of Rochester
2022 -2023 Winners:
Anne Cherry, MD – Duke University Medical Center
Amanda Kleiman, MD – University of Virginia
Emily MacKay, DO, MSHP – University of Pennsylvania
Jacob Raphael, MD, FAHA – Thomas Jefferson University