Courage perceived to be genuine (9)
I believe the answer is:
heartfelt
'be genuine' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'courage perceived' is the wordplay.
'courage' becomes 'heart' (heart is a kind of courage).
'perceived' becomes 'felt' ('feel' can be a synonym of 'perceive').
'heart'+'felt'='HEARTFELT'
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for heartfelt that I've seen before include "With sincere passion" , "Most fervent in cardiac way" , "Sincerely intended with strong feeling" , "Kindly" , "unfeigned sincerity" .)