EHA Research Grant review and selection process

Applicants will receive updates at each stage of the process and, where possible, feedback on their application.

Step 1: Eligibility check

After the deadline has passed, we’ll check your application for completion and compliance with the eligibility criteria.  

We will not review applications that: 

  • Are incomplete—for example, that are missing signatures or do not include a budget 
  • Do not meet the eligibility criteria 

If your application did not qualify for review, you’ll receive a notification. This decision is final. 

Step 2: Preliminary Review

EHA’s Fellowships and Grants Committee will: 

  • Perform a preliminary review of the applications 
  • Decide which applications will proceed to the next stage, which is an in-depth evaluation by an external peer review panel 

You’ll receive a notification about the success of your application in this first round. If you have not been selected for the next round, you’ll receive short feedback from the Committee. 

Step 3: External review

To assist our Fellowships and Grants Committee with the selection procedure, at least three external reviewers will review the project proposal in detail. These reviewers will be experts in the proposal’s topic.

External reviewers will score your application based on the following parameters. 

Project

  • The significance and impact. 
  • The novelty and originality. 
  • The appropriateness of the methods. 
  • The feasibility of the proposal. 
  • The host institute/scientific environment where the research will be conducted. 

Investigator

  • The track record and international standing of the investigator. 
  • The skills and expertise of the investigator (and collaborators, if applicable). 
  • The commitment to research culture and extramural activities. 

Budget considerations 

  • Are the budgeted activities clearly listed and assigned? 
  • Are the costs of resources/activities researched and substantiated? 
  • Can the project be achieved with the resources and planned timeline? 

Overall evaluation

  • To what extent does the proposed research address important challenges? 
  • To what extent are the objectives ambitious and beyond the state of the art (e.g. novel concepts and approaches)? 
  • To what extent is the proposed research high risk/high gain? 

What happens at the end of the external review

This external review will produce feedback both for the Fellowships and Grants Committee and for you as the applicant. The Committee will use this feedback to decide who to invite for an interview. 

Whatever the outcome of your application, you’ll receive the external review feedback after the awardees are announced. We hope that this feedback will provide some guidance on how the application and research plan could be improved. Please note that there will be no further correspondence regarding this feedback. 

Step 4: Interviews

Successful applicants will be invited to a video interview (max 25 minutes) where they will be given the opportunity to present their proposal (max 10 minutes) and answer questions (max 15 minutes) on it.

These interviews are scheduled for May 11–13, 2026.

Actions after a grant has been awarded 

Starting your project

You must start your project within one year of receiving your award. 

Grant agreement 

You must provide all of necessary information for the funding agreement. This will include: 

  • Bank details 
  • The project’s start date 

You and your institute must also sign the grant agreement that all parties read and approved during the application phase. 

If you withhold this approval, you may become ineligible and your award may be withdrawn. 

Your obligations

Once the grant agreement has been signed, the first installment is transferred to your institutes according to the disbursement schedule in the agreement. 

Interim reports

We expect to receive interim scientific and financial reports halfway through the project. You’ll receive templates for these reports in advance. Your second installment will be paid once your interim reports are approved.

Final reports

We expect to receive your final scientific and financial reports within six weeks of your project’s end date. Your final financial report must be audited and signed off by an external auditor and the institute’s financial head. Your last installment will be paid once your final reports are approved.

The Fellowships and Grants Committee is responsible for reviewing all scientific reports. 

Publication

Any publication arising from work funded by EHA must acknowledge EHA funding, as stated in the grant agreement.

Amendments

Any deviations from the approved project scope or budget must be formally requested before you implement them. For guidance on this, please email the EHA Grants Manager at grants@ehaweb.org. 

Tracking your grant’s impact

As an EHA award winner, we want to hear more about: 

  • How the award has helped you  
  • The impact it’s had on different aspects of your work, from collaborations to publications, or even additional funding 

This is why we work with Researchfish to track research and evidence impact.  

Submissions via Researchfish are mandatory during the grant period and for up to five (5) years following the end of the Grant, and thereafter upon EHA’s request.

Every January, you’ll receive an email with details about the status of your submission.

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