Research Grant Recipients 2026
Recipients awarded in 2026, commencing research projects in 2027
The Heart Foundation continues to support impactful cardiovascular research across Australia, generating new knowledge, building research capacity, and driving innovation to improve heart health.
This year’s funded projects span diverse areas including women’s heart health, First Nations focussed research, earlier detection, stroke recovery and new treatments for heart disease. Researchers will use a range of approaches, including artificial intelligence and precision medicine, to build knowledge and evidence that can improve how heart disease is prevented, detected and treated.
With the support of our generous donors, we are proud to invest in research that contributes to meaningful progress in cardiovascular health and helps improve outcomes for people and communities across Australia. For any enquiries, please contact the Research Program team at research@heartfoundation.org.au.
Recognising our 2026 grant awardees and the reviewers who made it possible
Congratulations to all recipients of funding through the Heart Foundation’s 2026 funding round. We also sincerely thank our peer and consumer reviewers for generously contributing their time, expertise and insights. Your valuable input helps support the integrity and quality of our research funding program.
Research Grants Listing
The Future Leader Fellowship program aims to support the best and brightest in cardiovascular research. It supports aspiring leaders who are developing independence and their own research portfolio, through to established leaders of cardiovascular research groups with extensive research programs.
Future Leader Fellowship – Level 1
Explore Level 1 projects
| Grant ID | Researcher | Administering Institute | State | Research Category | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 111186-2026_FLF | Cheryl Carcel | University of New South Wales | New South Wales | Clinical | Precision prehospital management of intracerebral haemorrhage using biomarkerbased diagnostic stratification and early blood pressure lowering |
| 111507-2026_FLF | Susie Cartledge | Monash University | Victoria | Clinical, Public health, Health services | Secondary Prevention Access and Rehabilitation for Key Populations – Co-designing Cardiac Rehabilitation (SPARK-CR) |
| 111484-2026_FLF | Lachlan Dalli | Monash University | Victoria | Public health, Health services | Evidence and solutions to enhance the long-term use and effectiveness of medicines for stroke prevention |
| 112089-2026_FLF | Alisa Higgins | Monash University | Victoria | Clinical | Understanding and improving transitions of care and long-term outcomes following critical illness with acute heart failure |
| 111379-2026_FLF | Mark Louis Vidallon | The University of Melbourne | Victoria | Biomedical | Engineering stable, scalable lipid nanoplatforms for broad-access cardiovascular mRNA nanotherapeutics |
Future Leader Fellowship – Level 2
Explore Level 2 projects
| Grant ID | Researcher | Administering Institute | State | Research Category | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 111660-2026_FLF | Clare Arnott | University of New South Wales | New South Wales | Clinical | Improving the Cardiovascular health of Australians through trials of novel therapies |
| 111152-2026_FLF | Michael Falster | University of New South Wales | New South Wales | Health services | Optimising safe and equitable cardiometabolic medicine use in Australia |
| 111135-2026_FLF | Jiawen Li | Adelaide University | South Australia | Biomedical, Clinical | Reliable and efficient AI-integrated 3D-printed multimodal intravascular imaging platform for precision cardiovascular risk assessment |
Future Leader Fellowship – Level 3
Explore Level 3 projects
| Grant ID | Researcher | Administering Institute | State | Research Category | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 112188-2026_FLF | Amy Brodtmann | Monash University | Victoria | Clinical | Diagnosing and preventing the impacts of cardiovascular risk factors to optimise midlife brain health |
| 111110-2026_FLF | Dion Stub | Monash University | Victoria | Clinical, Public health | Leveraging clinical registries to transform the delivery of acute cardiac care |
| 111194-2026_FLF | Xiaowei Wang | The University of Melbourne | Victoria | Biomedical | A precision nanobiotechnology platform: Innovative molecular imaging, targeted nanocarriers and long-lasting mRNA therapeutics for the prevention and therapy of cardiovascular diseases |
Postdoctoral Fellowship
The Postdoctoral Fellowship program is aimed at early career researchers and seeks to identify the strongest emerging Australian talent in cardiovascular research who have just completed or are nearing completion of their PhD studies. Successful Postdoctoral Fellows will have a demonstrated strong track record during their PhD and will be working towards gaining recognition for expertise in their research area.
Explore Postdoctoral Fellowship projects
| Grant ID | Researcher | Administering Institute | State | Research Category | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 112178-2026_PDF | Anna Balabanski | The University of Melbourne | Victoria | Clinical, Public health, Health services | On Country, On Time: Co-Designing Equitable Hyperacute Stroke Care for Aboriginal and Remote Australians |
| 112208-2026_PDF | Jason Bloom | Monash University | Victoria | Biomedical, Clinical | Optimising vasoactive support strategies in cardiac emergencies |
| 112198-2026_PDF | Alexandra Davidson | Bond University Limited | Queensland | Clinical, Health services | Evaluating implementation of in-hospital influenza vaccination for patients post myocardial infarction in Australia |
| 112256-2026_PDF | Joshua Francis | Menzies School of Health Research | Northern Territory | Clinical, Public health, Health services | The diagnostic accuracy of single parasternal long axis view with a sweep of the heart (SPLASH) task-sharing echocardiography for detection of carditis and follow-up of people with known acute rheumatic fever or rheumatic heart disease |
| 112173-2026_PDF | Mengyun Luo | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Public health | Equity in Motion: Co-creating systems-informed solutions to support physical activity among women in disadvantaged communities for equitable cardiovascular health |
| 112210-2026_PDF | Rikeish Muralitharan | Monash University | Victoria | Biomedical | Using novel gut microbiome supplementation to treat high blood pressure |
| 112330-2026_PDF | Marie-Claire Seeley | Adelaide University | South Australia | Biomedical, Clinical | “Out of Balance”: Defining Autonomic Nervous System Function in Survivors of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection |
| 112384-2026_PDF | Louise Segan | Monash University | Victoria | Clinical, Health services | Partial or complete withdrawal of heart-failure pharmacotherapy in recovered atrial fibrillation–mediated cardiomyopathy: The WITHDRAW-AF II study |
| 112401-2026_PDF | Jonathan Sen | Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute | Victoria | Clinical | Establishing the Australian Echo Intelligence Network (EchoIN-AU): A Bidirectional Audit of Human-AI Errors in Echocardiography Linked to Clinical Outcomes in Aortic Stenosis and Cardio-Oncology |
| 112167-2026_PDF | Madeleine Smith | Monash University | Victoria | Biomedical | Improving stroke recovery with stem cell enhanced motor rehabilitation |
| 112488-2026_PDF | Nhi Tran | Monash University | Victoria | Biomedical | Improving Outcomes of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation of Asphyxiated Newborns with Prophylactic Creatine Supplementation |
| 112375-2026_PDF | Yunduo Zhao | Heart Research Institute | New South Wales | Biomedical | Patient-specific carotid Physical Twins to predict thromboembolic mechanophenotypes and guide personalised antithrombotic therapy for stroke prevention |
Postgraduate Scholarship
The Postgraduate Scholarship provides funding to support successful applicants to attain a research-based postgraduate degree (Doctor of Philosophy or Master’s Degree by Research). The scholarship will support outstanding graduates early in their careers so they can be trained to conduct cardiovascular research that is internationally competitive.
Explore Postgraduate Scholarship projects
| Grant ID | Researcher | Administering Institute | State | Research Category | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 112748-2026_PGS | Rita-Maria Abdo | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Biomedical, Clinical | Improving Diagnosis and Management of Dilated Cardiomyopathy Through Integrated Clinical, Molecular, and Haemodynamic Characterisation |
| 112325-2026_PGS | Matthew Bright | The University of Queensland | Queensland | Clinical | Individualised intraoperative blood pressure management guided by cerebral autoregulation and metabolic monitoring to reduce perioperative organ injury and improve outcomes in cardiac and non-cardiac surgery |
| 112331-2026_PGS | Bernard Chan | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Clinical | Improving outcomes following atrial fibrillation ablation: Elucidating new therapeutic targets beyond the pulmonary veins |
| 112376-2026_PGS | Jonathan Ciofani | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Biomedical, Clinical | Population Genomic Approaches to Identify Medical Therapies for Aortic Stenosis |
| 112750-2026_PGS | Harendran Elangovan | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Biomedical, Clinical | Monocyte biological aging (Inflammaging) as a unifying axis linking MAFLD fibrosis severity to cardiovascular disease risk - A discovery phase analysis |
| 112670-2026_PGS | Nadja Korajkic | The University of Melbourne | Victoria | Clinical | Evaluating neuroimaging biomarkers of brain age in young adult stroke to optimise cardiovascular risk stratification and recovery |
| 112386-2026_PGS | Timothy Kwan | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Clinical | Real time ventricular substrate characterisation using artificial intelligence analysis of intracardiac electrograms for targeted ablation |
| 112500-2026_PGS | Jeremy Russo | Monash University | Victoria | Clinical | Optimising heart transplant trajectories in adults with Fontan failure: Clinical characterisation, exercise haemodynamics and therapeutic intervention |
| 112400-2026_PGS | Sonia Sawant | University of New South Wales | New South Wales | Clinical | Multimodal predictors of right ventricular failure post left ventricular assist device implantation (PREDICT-RV) |
| 112674-2026_PGS | Lung En Teng | The University of Melbourne | Victoria | Clinical, Health services | Macrotroponin interference in MINOCA (MIMIC): Identification and Clinical impact |
| 112326-2026_PGS | Zhi Hao Teoh | St Vincents Institute of Medical Research | Victoria | Clinical | Preventing Early Coronary Artery Disease Progression in Endurance Athletes: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Bempedoic Acid |
| 112781-2026_PGS | Mithila Zaheen | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Clinical, Public health | Myocardial Infarction in the Young: Atherosclerosis and Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection |
First Nations CVD Grant
This First Nations CVD Grant aims to support projects focused on producing high-impact improvements in cardiovascular health among First Nations people. It also includes funding for an introductory research role specifically for a First Nations individual, who will be mentored by the project's Chief Investigator. The goal is to encourage and sustain First Nations researchers within the cardiovascular health research community.
Explore First Nations CVD Grant projects
| Grant ID | Researcher | Administering Institute | State | Research Category | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 113039-2026_FNC | Lauren Christie | Australian Catholic University Limited | New South Wales | Clinical | CAREPATH Stroke- Developing culturally safe stroke recovery pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples |
| 112709-2026_FNC | Felicity Collis | The University of Newcastle | New South Wales | Public health, Health services | Adapting the Which Way? Women’s Program: An expanded co-design, implementation and evaluation of a smoking and vaping cessation program for First Nations women across diverse communities |
| 112964-2026_FNC | Julieann Coombes | The George Institute for Global Health | New South Wales | Public health, Health services | Understanding Barriers and Facilitators to Cardiac Transplantation: focusing on the experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heart failure patients |
| 112629-2026_FNC | Jessica Orchard | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Clinical | Screening to prevent sudden cardiac death in young Indigenous Australians in the Top End using the community sporting setting: Hearts In Focus-NT |
Vanguard Grant
The purpose of the Vanguard Grant is to provide funding to test the feasibility of innovative concepts in clinical, public health and/or health services (including clinical service delivery) or biomedical research which may lead to larger, more rigorous studies in the future. Both pilot studies and ‘stand-alone’ projects will be considered. These projects are expected to produce tangible outcomes with the potential to further advance preclinical research technology or improve cardiovascular health.
Explore Vanguard Grants projects
| Grant ID | Researcher | Administering Institute | State | Research Category | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 112854-2026_VG | Hadi Afsharan | University of Western Australia | Western Australia | Biomedical, Clinical | Retinal Polarisation-Sensitive OCT for non-invasive Coronary Artery Disease screening |
| 112421-2026_VG | Joshua Bourne | Monash University | Victoria | Biomedical | Targeting Fibrin: a novel strategy to dampen neuroinflammation after stroke |
| 112908-2026_VG | Georgia Brown | Murdoch Children's Research Institute | Victoria | Clinical | DoSKIM: A Pilot Study of Skimmed Donor Human Milk for Infants with Chylothorax following Congenital Heart Surgery |
| 112914-2026_VG | Kristen Bubb | Monash University | Victoria | Biomedical | Progressing a novel therapy to prevent right ventricular failure in pulmonary hypertension |
| 112527-2026_VG | Christina Bursill | Adelaide University | South Australia | Biomedical | When stents become plaques - identifying novel targets for preventing in-stent neoatherosclerosis |
| 112686-2026_VG | Tim Coulson | Monash University | Victoria | Clinical | The effect of retrograde autologous priming on transfusion requirements after cardiac surgery (TheRAPy): a multiple period vanguard cluster crossover trial |
| 112987-2026_VG | Girish Dwivedi | University of Western Australia | Western Australia | Biomedical, Clinical | Wearable Radar-Based Monitoring of Jugular Venous Pressure for Heart Failure Management |
| 113013-2026_VG | David Elliott | Murdoch Children's Research Institute | Victoria | Biomedical | Investigating the role of myogenic TRIM E3 ubiquitin ligases in cardiac contraction to better understand ubiquitin signalling in cardiomyopathy |
| 112973-2026_VG | Anna Hearps | The Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health | Victoria | Biomedical | Advancing the development of novel, myeloid-cell centric interventions for preventing inflammation-related atherosclerosis |
| 112971-2026_VG | Abdul Rahman Ihdayhid | Curtin University | Western Australia | Clinical, Health services | Reducing misdiagnosis of spontaneous coronary artery dissection using artificial intelligence |
| 112919-2026_VG | Maria Jelinic | La Trobe University | Victoria | Biomedical | Targeting stress-ligands on fibrous-cap vascular smooth muscle cells in coronary plaques to prevent myocardial infarction |
| 112711-2026_VG | Morwenna Kirwan | University of New South Wales | New South Wales | Public health, Health services | SWISH (Sensor-based Wearables to Improve Self-efficacy and Health literacy): a three-site feasibility study of CGM-based biofeedback for cardiovascular prevention in remote Australian communities |
| 112508-2026_VG | Anoop Koshy | The University of Melbourne | Victoria | Clinical | Sex-Specific Multi-Modality Imaging to Predict Biological Severity in Women with Aortic Stenosis |
| 112446-2026_VG | Nicholas Larkins | Edith Cowan University | Western Australia | Public health | The GenPressure Trial: When & whether to screen children’s blood pressure |
| 113018-2026_VG | Toby Mansell | Murdoch Children's Research Institute | Victoria | Biomedical | How severe childhood infection increases cardiovascular risk: building mechanistic understanding to inform novel targets for earlier prevention |
| 112707-2026_VG | Antony McNamee | Griffith University | Queensland | Biomedical | From clot structure to clinical outcome: quantifying how thrombus composition governs embolisation and thrombolytic efficacy |
| 112805-2026_VG | Joanne McVeigh | Curtin University | Western Australia | Public health, Health services | From data to design: using device-derived 24 hour movement behaviour data to develop a behavioural cardiovascular health intervention across the menopausal transition |
| 112998-2026_VG | Nitesh Nerlekar | Monash University | Victoria | Clinical, Public health, Health services | EMBRACE-Pilot: a feasibility study of point-of-care cardiovascular risk assessment embedded within routine mammography |
| 112562-2026_VG | Victoria Ozberk | Griffith University | Queensland | Biomedical | Rewiring Protective Immunity Away from Autoimmunity in Rheumatic Heart Disease |
| 112578-2026_VG | Tayla Penny | Monash University | Victoria | Biomedical | Using MRI guided focused ultrasound to improve the uptake of insulin like growth factor-1 as a treatment for perinatal stroke |
| 113002-2026_VG | Mahesh Ramanan | The University of Queensland | Queensland | Biomedical, Clinical | Hydrogen gas as a novel neuroprotective therapy for refractory cardiopulmonary arrest supported by ECMO: A preclinical prospective study |
| 112904-2026_VG | Rebecca Ritchie | Monash University | Victoria | Biomedical | Impact of menopause on tirzepatide-induced cardioprotection in obese females |
| 112645-2026_VG | Cheng Hwee Soh | The University of Melbourne | Victoria | Clinical, Public health | Two-step Risk-based Identification and Assessment for Guiding Early Heart Failure detection in cancer survivors |
| 113014-2026_VG | Christopher Stanley | Heart Research Institute | New South Wales | Biomedical | Targeting tryptophan metabolism — lowering blood pressure and reducing CVD risk |
Collaboration and Exchange Grant
The purpose of the Collaboration and Exchange Grant is to enable Heart Foundation funded Fellows and Scholars to visit research facilities in Australia or overseas to collaborate and exchange innovation and knowledge. This grant aims to strengthen the recipient’s research capacity.
Explore Collaboration and Exchange Grant projects
| Grant ID | Researcher | Administering Institute | State | Research Category | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 113035-2026_C&E | Jacob Cao | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Clinical | Evaluating outcomes of transcatheter adult congenital heart disease interventions through international registry collaboration |
| 112634-2026_C&E | Yiyao Chen | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Biomedical, Clinical | From mechanobiology to mechanomedicine: Bridging Sydney and INSERM for vascular biology, diagnostics and personalised therapeutics |
| 112588-2026_C&E | Aung Zaw Zaw Phyo | Monash University | Victoria | Public health | Dissemination of frailty and cardiovascular disease (CVD) research on a global stage: building on advanced causal methodology and United States collaboration to advance frailty-based CVD prevention into clinical practice |
| 113051-2026_C&E | Derek Tran | University of Sydney | New South Wales | Health services | Translating Precision Exercise Medicine into Congenital Heart Disease Care: An International Collaboration and Exchange Program |
Awards for Innovation and Excellence
The following researchers are recipients of this year's awards recognising innovation and excellence.
Shirley E Freeman Award
Dr Shirley E Freeman AM (1924 - 2014) was the first female to receive funding from the Heart Foundation, receiving £1250 in 1961 for her project “Mechanisms of respiratory control in cardiac muscle”. Her work with Dr Paul Fantl on the mechanism of blood clotting led to the development of warfarin.
This award was established in 2021 and is given to the two most innovative female fellowships. This year the award has been offered to:
- Prof Xiaowei Wang, The University of Melbourne, 2026 Future Leader Fellowship - Level 3
A precision nanobiotechnology platform: Innovative molecular imaging, targeted nanocarriers and long-lasting mRNA therapeutics for the prevention and therapy of cardiovascular diseases
- Dr Marie-Claire Seeley, Adelaide University, 2026 Postdoctoral Fellowship
“Out of Balance”: Defining Autonomic Nervous System Function in Survivors of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection.
Paul Korner Innovation Award
In memory of Professor Paul Korner, who passed away in 2012, this award is in appreciation of the positive impact his work in tackling cardiovascular disease had on many lives.
This award was established in 2012 and is given to the two most innovative male fellowships. This year the award has been offered to:
- Dr Mark Louis Vidallon, The University of Melbourne, 2026 Future Leader Fellowship - Level 1
Engineering stable, scalable lipid nanoplatforms for broad-access cardiovascular mRNA nanotherapeutics
- Dr Yunduo Zhao, Heart Research Institute, 2026 Postdoctoral Fellowship
Patient-specific carotid Physical Twins to predict thromboembolic mechanophenotypes and guide personalised antithrombotic therapy for stroke prevention
Ross Hohnen Award for Research Excellence
In memory of Mr. Ross Hohnen AM, OBE who passed away in 2003, the Heart Foundation awards the “Ross Hohnen Award recognising Research Excellence” to encourage innovation in cardiovascular research. Ross Hohnen was instrumental in establishing the Heart Foundation in 1959.
This year the award recognises the highest ranked one-year Vanguard Grant application, and has been offered to:
- A/Prof Nitesh Nerlekar, Monash University, 2026 Vanguard Grant
EMBRACE-Pilot: a feasibility study of point-of-care cardiovascular risk assessment embedded within routine mammography.
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Last updated27 October 2026