The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) is an NHLBI-funded cohort study of risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke in adults 65 years or older. In the early 1990s, 5888 participants underwent examinations that included traditional risk factors and measures of sub-clinical disease. During follow-up, many exam components were repeated, and CVD events were ascertained. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has extended CHS contract funding (1) to implement a model for a transition from contract-funding to investigator-initiated research and (2) to enhance access to CHS data for future papers and ancillary studies by CHS and non-CHS colleagues. The Events Follow-up Study will provide a foundation for the transition. Current and future papers and ancillary studies using CHS data or stored specimens will have additional power and can be conducted more efficiently if a service events-core continues to collect and adjudicate CVD events and deaths in a standardized fashion.