ABSTRACT Despite modern advances in diagnsotics and therapeutics, more individuals die of cardiovascular disease across the globe than from any other disease. This is longstanding training grant dedicated to preparing the next generation of academicians for careers in cardiovascular disease research. The Program consists of eight educational opportunity pods covering a range of topic areas from clinical / population science to basic and translational research. These Pods focus on research opportunities in vascular disease (including thrombosis and inflammation), metabolism, genetics, stroke, cardiac myocyte biology and arrhythmia, women's heart disease, and aging. These latter two pods represent new and expanded training opportunities leverage major new institutional programs. The grant provides both didactic training as well as research immersion for MD, MD PhD, or PhD trainees. This grant, now in its 20th year, has trained a large number of investigators, many of whom have led paradigm changing and sustained research programs and have trainees of their own. Many of the recent trainees have obtained NIH K or even R level funding, with academic positions. The core leadership team consists of three senior faculty, each with a substantial portfolio of training experience, who are drawn from the fields of vascular biology, cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular pharmacology. The program is integrated with common didactic coursework in instruction of responsible conduct of research, a skies of cutting edge scientific seminars, and an interactive networking program that facilitates interchange among trainee peers and mentors. The overall goal has been and will be to create and sustain the next generation of cardiovascular scientists to focus on the most important disease of our era.