Diversity in the european association of cardiovascular imaging (EACVI) research and training grants: gender, geographic and economic perspectives

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Training and research grants are crucial for professional and academic advancement especially in a rapidly evolving specialty like cardiac imaging. Equity, inclusion and diversity in funding research and training are fundamental in achieving research and training excellence. No prior data evaluated the diversity in the research and training grants awarded by international cardiovascular societies. Purpose Current analysis aimed to evaluate the distribution of awarded EACVI grants according to the country and gender of the grantsˈ winners. Methods Official ESC website was searched for names of EACVI research and training grantsˈ winners, gender, and affiliating country as well as hosting country of the awardee were documented. If any of this data was missed in the ESC website, then the awardeesˈ gender and affiliation were searched via google scholar, ResearchGate and LinkedIn platforms. The countries of the awardees were classified according to the continent and World Bank Economic classification [High income (HIC), middle (MIC) and low income (LIC) countries]. Results A total of 57 EACVI grants[36 research grants (from 2009 to 2021) and 21 training grants (from 2015 to 2021)] were analysed. Women won 54.38% of total grants [55.56% of research grants and 52.38% of training grants].  Winners of research grants were from HIC and MIC in 63.89% and 36.11% respectively, while winners of training grants were from HIC and MIC in 66.67% and 33.33% respectively. Winners of research grants were from Europe in 80.55%, and Asia in 16.66%, while winners of training grants were from Europe in 66.67% and Asia in 19.04%. The most common EACVI research grant hosting countries were Belgium (27.77%), UK (22.22%), Netherlands and Italy (16.66% for each), while the most common EACVI training grant hosting countries were UK (52.38%), Italy (23.8%) and Belgium (9.52%). Conclusions Women were well represented in EACVI research and training grants. Yet, both low-income countries and non-European countries were remarkably under-represented in EACVI grants. Considering the high burden of cardiovascular diseases in LIC and MIC, every effort should be made to increasingly include cardiologists from these countries in research and training opportunities to achieve the main ESC mission of decreasing the cardiovascular disease burden worldwide beyond the limits of geography. Abstract Figure.  Abstract Figure.