Amsterdam Cardiovascular Sciences

ACS provides funds to support talented ACS researchers. The MD/PhD grant is aimed at continuing research to become an excellent clinical investigator along with obtaining a medical specialization.

ACS MD/PhD grants of €17.500 per year (with a maximum of two-years) are used for 1 day a week protected research time during a 1 or 2 year post-doctoral project in the cardiovascular research field.

Application

The ACS Md/PhD Grant 2026 call is now open!

To submit an application, please fill in the ACS Talent Grants Application form (link below) and send it to ACS@amsterdamumc.nl. The deadline for submission is Tuesday March 24, 17:00.

Please also include:

• A letter of the supervising PI/department chair stating that the researcher is endorsed and that bench fee, travel and extra expenses are covered by the supervising ACS PI and/or department with a guarantee that this support will be provided for the full duration of the project.

Only applications that are eligible, complete, in the correct format and submitted before the deadline will be considered.

Eligibility requirements

• The applicant is in specialist training at Amsterdam UMC or in another hospital.
• PhD needs to be obtained before the project starting date (provide date of PhD defense)
• The project can maximally run for the remaining training time (1 or 2 years)
• The applicant is ACS member and embedded* in at least one of the research programs of the ACS research institute of Amsterdam UMC

*The applicant needs to be affiliated with ACS in PURE. Amsterdam UMC researchers can be affiliated can be affiliated with max. two research institutes and max. two programs per research institute.

Conditions

The following conditions should be met:

• The applicant spends 1 day a week on this research project.
• The project starts in 2026 and runs max. 2 years.
• Bench fee is covered by the involved department.
• The application has a main focus on cardiovascular research and fits within the scope of ACS.
• The applicant can only submit one ACS Talent Grant application per round, i.e. the applicant needs to choose between an ACS Postdoc or MD/PhD grant.
• The applicant provides an overview of other grant applications related to this project, submitted and currently under review. You may need to make a choice between this grant and other grants obtained in the event these grants are overlapping.

Please contact ACS via acs@amsterdamumc.nl if you have questions regarding the conditions.

Requirements after obtaining the grant:

• All publications that are a result of this grant should mention ACS in the affiliation address. Please visit the ACS website for more information on the correct affiliation format
• Within three months of the end of the project, the applicant informs ACS about the results of the project and the future perspectives.
• During or at the end of the project, the applicant can be asked to present or give an update about the project of his/hers application at an ACS event, for the ACS website or other communication channels
  

Criteria and selection

Your application will be judged on:

• Quality of the candidate based on CV (40%)
• Quality and innovative nature of the project that is fitting the applicants expertise (40%)
• Future perspective of the applicant and for funding (20%)

Selection procedure:

• Eligible and complete applications will be reviewed by three internal reviewers
• Based on the internal review reports, the ACS directorate selects applications for presentations
• A selection of applicants present their project during an interview stage for an committee composed of external and internal members.
• The ACS directorate will receive an advice form the committee and make the final decision of the awarding of the grant.
• If it appears that two or more applications cannot be distinguished from each other based on their weighted total score, then there is an ex aequo situation. In order to encourage the alignment with the ACS strategic mission, the application that best fits within the ACS research programs will be ranked highest.

Expected Timeline

Please note that the timeline below is subject to change.