Assistance program
Cardiovascular Diseases Research
$21.7 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- National Institutes of Health, Health and Human Services, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 93.837
- What it does
- The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) provides global leadership for a research, training, and education program to promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases and enhance the health of all individuals so that they can live longer and more fulfilling lives. To foster heart and vascular research in the basic, translational, clinical and population sciences, and to foster training to build talented young investigators in these areas, funded through competitive research training grants. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program: To stimulate technological innovation; use small business to meet Federal research and development needs; foster and encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by socially and economically disadvantaged persons; and increase private-sector commercialization of innovations derived from Federal research and development funding. Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program: To stimulate technological innovation; foster technology transfer through cooperative R&D between small businesses and research institutions, and increase private sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal R&D.
- Who benefits
- Any nonprofit or for-profit organization, company or institution engaged in biomedical research. Only domestic for-profit small business firms may apply for SBIR and STTR programs.
- Who applies
- Local (includes State-designated Indian Tribes; excludes institutions of higher education and hospitals), Public nonprofit institution/organization (includes institutions of higher education and hospitals), Individual/Family, Small business (less than 500 employees), Private nonprofit institution/organization (includes institutions of higher education and hospitals) . Any nonprofit organization engaged in biomedical research and institutions or companies organized for profit may apply for almost any kind of grant. Only domestic, non-profit, private or public institutions may apply for NRSA Institutional Research Training Grants. An individual may apply for an NRSA or, in some cases, for a research grant if adequate facilities to perform the research are available. SBIR grants can be awarded only to United States small business concerns (entities that are independently owned and operated for profit or owned by another small business that itself is independently owned and operated for profit, or owned by multiple venture capital operating companies, hedge funds, private equity firms, or any combination of these and have no more than 500 employees including affiliates). Primary employment (more than one-half time) of the principal investigator must be with the small business at the time of award and during the conduct of the proposed project. In both Phase I and Phase II, the research must be performed in the U.S. or its possessions except under rare and unique circumstances where foreign components are thoroughly justified and necessary to the overall completion of the project. To be eligible for funding, a grant application must be approved for scientific merit and program relevance by a scientific review group and a national advisory council. Normally, SBIR projects must be performed at least 67% by the applicant small business in Phase I and at least 50% of the Project in Phase II. STTR grants can be awarded only to United States small business concerns (entities that are independently owned and operated for profit and have no more than 500 employees) that formally collaborate with a university or other non-profit research institution in cooperative research and development. The principal investigator of an STTR award may be employed with either the small business concern or collaborating non-profit research institution as long as s/he has a formal appointment with or commitment to the applicant small business concern and is willing to devote at least 10% effort (1.2 calendar months) to the project. At least 40% of the project is to be performed by the small business concern and at least 30% by the non-profit research institution. In both Phase I and Phase II, the research must be performed in the U.S. and its possessions except under rare and unique circumstances where foreign components are thoroughly justified and necessary to the overall completion of the project.
- Authorized by
- Public Health Service Act, Section 301, 422 and 487, as amended, Public Laws 78-410 and 99-158, 42 U.S.C. 241, 42 U.S.C. 285, and 42 U.S.C. 288, as amended; Small Business Reauthorization Act of 2000, Public Law 106-554.
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
How the money flows
Committed dollars by how this program's money is paid out.
Direct payments
$829.7M
4%
Grants
$20.8B
96%
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments