CV Champions Program

The ACvA Cardiovascular (CV) Champions Program is an Early and Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) leadership development opportunity. By bringing together emerging cardiovascular EMCR’s, the program aims to create academic entrepreneurs who are equipped to be future leaders in the CV research sector.

The 2022-23 program will be held virtually over 12 months and will include a combination of workshops and out-of-session individual exercises. This year’s workshops will focus on the following themes:

• Strategic Thinking and Career Planning

Learn how to plan your career for success, identify your strengths and gaps within your CV, and start your own personal board of advisors.

• Build your Network and Become the Expert

Strategies to build your network (in-person and virtually) and learn to leverage social media and digital presence to claim your stake as an expert.

• Stakeholder Engagement and Communicating Effectively

How to make complex science engaging and exciting, how to tailor your message to your audience, and why understanding the diversity and needs of stakeholders can propel your research impact.

• Creating Impact-Driven Research

Generate and pitch your ideas to have impact and funding success, develop a broader research vision with aligned project ideas, how to write an eye-catching research impact statement

At the conclusion of the workshops, we hope to offer CV Champions the opportunity to form teams and pitch research ideas.

Additional benefits of the program include:

• Being paired with a senior mentor to help provide personalized guidance on achieving your career goals
• Increased visibility by being profiled on the ACvA CV Champions website
• Joining an elite collection of CV Champions alumni
• Deep networking opportunities with fellow CV EMCR’s, senior research leaders, and members of the ACvA leadership. 

How to apply, cost and eligibility criteria

We’re looking for future leaders of the cardiovascular sector who embody the mission, vision, and values of the ACvA. As such, acceptance into the CV Champions program is a competitive process that will be assessed on the response of three short answer questions.

For this program, we’re defining an EMCR from PhD thesis submission up to 10 years post-PhD (excluding career disruptions). Before joining the program, successful applicants will be required to contribute $150 to help recover costs. For those unable to cover this cost, a small number of scholarships will be available. Lastly, applicants should be a current financial ACvA member, or join upon acceptance into the program.

Applications will open on Monday July 18^th and close Monday August 1^st 2022 at midnight (AEST).