ARPA-H to Focus on Health Sciences, Scalable Solutions, Proactive Health, and Resilient Systems

ARPA-H’s mission is to accelerate better health outcomes for everyone by supporting the development of high-impact solutions to society's most challenging health problems. Modeled after DOD’s DARPA, the agency was created in 2022 to advance high-potential, high-impact biomedical and health research that cannot be readily accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity.

With combined appropriations from FY 2022 and FY 2023 totaling $2.5B, the agency is in the process of developing the organizational structure and processes to carry out its important mission. ARPA-H is housed within NIH but operates independently, with its own culture, policies, and processes.

According to ARPA-H’s website, the agency will use a research model similar to DARPA, to implement well-defined and measurable programs. Each program will be led by a Program Manager (PM) “who champions a core idea, frames a challenge, and awards projects to multidisciplinary teams of performers, whose work is then measured and evaluated to ensure that only the best solutions advance.”

Performers, as defined by the agency, consist of entities from industry, academia, and government. These teams will apply for ARPA-H funding, usually in the form of a contract, to build their idea for a solution. The agency is also constructing a network of early adopters in the form of investors, customers, innovation hubs, incubators, and accelerators to help commercialize ARPA-H innovations.

ARPA-H plans to construct high-payoff capabilities or platforms to drive biomedical breakthroughs for diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and cancer. To do this, agency PMs will concentrate on the following research focus areas:

• Health Sciences Futures
• Scalable Solutions
• Proactive Health
• Resilient Systems

To support the technology needs of ARPA-H, in January the agency named Kevin Duvall as acting Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Additionally, earlier this month, the agency released a draft solicitation for a wide range of technical support services to assist its researchers. The envisioned five-year, $500M contract dubbed STATS (Strategic Technical ARPA-H Talent Support) will support PMs giving them access to services from 31 labor categories.

In a recent webinar, Duvall stated that his organization wants to provide technology to empower ARPA-H PMs. Because the organization is new, its infrastructure will be cloud native by design. The agency has no legacy technology to modernize. Cloud computing will also enable flexibility and nimbleness, according to Duvall.

Additionally, he wants to leverage AI and machine learning across all four ARPA-H focus areas to empower PMs to solve healthcare challenges. Duvall also envisions close partnerships with NIH, CDC, FDA, CMS, and other HHS Operating Divisions. He’s impressed with NIH’s data management and cloud technology in the STRIDES program and hopes to partner with them where possible.

Duvall also believes ARPA-H can leverage current contracting mechanisms and still be adaptive and innovative. He believes the organization’s goals can be achieved with contract flexibilities that exist today. He stated that sometimes “we hem ourselves in on constraints that aren't necessarily there.”