Experience in cardiovascular research is an essential component of fellowship training in cardiology. In addition to their patient care responsibilities, fellows are expected to become involved in a research project during core rotations, under the guidance of faculty mentors. Such projects, either new or ongoing, are often retrospective analyses that may form the basis of future studies for fellows interested in clinical research. Research opportunities in bioinformatics, basic, and translational research are also available. Fellows should identify a faculty research mentor and begin designing a potential project by the end of the first year. Each fellow works with a scholarship oversight committee that assists the fellow in identifying projects and resources, and monitors their progress throughout fellowship training.

It is expected that each fellow will, with appropriate guidance, write and submit a proposal for a research project that:

1. Addresses an important question
2. Applies available state-of-the-art techniques to answering that question
3. Is practical within the time and other constraints of the fellowship

Research training in the department beyond the third year is predicated on the identification of a suitable mentor and appropriate research project(s). The department has an institutional National Institutes of Health training grant (T32), which supports further clinical or bench research training for selected fellows. Fellows are also encouraged to write individual grant applications, but fellowship funding is not dependent upon such grants being funded. Fellows interested in further training in clinical research may be considered for participation in the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health or the Scholars in Clinical Science Program at Harvard Medical School.