EHA Bilateral Collaborative Grant review and selection process

 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 project. 
  • The collaborative nature of the project.

Investigator 

  • The track record and international standing of the investigators. 
  • The skills and capabilities of the research partners in the context of this project. 
  • The complementary scientific qualities of the research partner. 
  • The mutual learning opportunities and likelihood of sustained interaction. 

 Budget 

  • Are the budgeted activities clearly listed and assigned? 
  • Are the costs of resources/activities researched and substantiated? 
  • Is the ratio of funding between the 2 collaborators sufficiently justified? 
  • 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? 
  • Is the collaborative nature of the project justified?

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 the winners. 

The winners will be notified in the beginning of May 2026. 

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: Ceremonial award acceptance 

If you’re selected as a winner, you’ll receive complimentary registration for the EHA2026 Congress. This will take place from June 11–14, 2026. The location has yet to be announced. 

Grant recipients are expected to attend this event, where they will formally receive their award during the opening ceremony. 

Actions after a grant has been awarded 

Starting your project 

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

Funding agreement 

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

  • Bank details 
  • The project’s start date 

The PIs and their institutes must also sign the funding agreement. This refers to the terms and conditions 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 funding agreement has been signed by all parties, we’ll transfer the first installment to the institutes. This will be done according to the disbursement schedule in the agreement. 

We expect to receive interim scientific and financial reports halfway through the project. You’ll receive templates for these reports in advance. As the winner, you’re expected to collect financial reports from the institute and ensuring we receive these documents. 

PI 1 is expected to submit the following reports on behalf of the collaboration: 

  1. Mutual scientific report 
  2. Separate financial statements from the respective institutes 

We’ll only pay the next installment of your grant funding if: 

  • We’ve received all of your reports 
  • Our review of them is favorable 

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

Any publication arising from work funded by EHA must acknowledge EHA funding, as stated in the terms and conditions. 

Amendments 

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

Finishing your grant period 

You must submit all final reports within six weeks of your project’s end date. This means both financial and scientific reports. 

We’ll share reporting templates with you via the grantee portal. 

Your financial reports from both institutes must be: 

  • Audited 
  • Signed off by an external auditor and the institute’s financial head

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: 

  • Optional during your grant period 
  • Mandatory for a few years after the completion of your grant period  

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

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