The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is a federal initiative supporting research in high-impact areas to drive biomedical and health breakthroughs. With a $2.5 billion budget, ARPA-H’s mission is to focus on leveraging research advances for real world impact.

Taking inspiration from the DARPA model of research in the defense field, the ARPA-H model employs an innovative, radical approach to research that is directed at solving practical problems. In contrast to other funding mechanisms for health research, the ARPA-H model advances high-potential research that could not otherwise be accomplished through traditional research or commercial avenues.

We provide this page as a resource to Johns Hopkins researchers looking for opportunities to advance their research through this new, exciting program. Please reach out to the Research Development Team if you are interested in submitting an application for an open ARPA-H program.

Key Considerations

In addition to the technical merits of proposals, the translation and commercialization of innovations developed using ARPA-H investments are very important considerations for their awards. Each Program RFP will have specific requirements, but in general, ARPA-H applicants should be prepared to address:

• Teaming/partnering with industry – Each program has specific guidelines for teaming, but in general it will strengthen applications to show a plan for partnering and in many cases aligning with industry stakeholders who can complement the contributions of academia.
• The Commercialization Plan – As ARPA-H is focused on solutions and real-world impact, applicants should be prepared to speak to their strategy for bringing solutions into practice.

Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV) can assist faculty applicants with teaming support (identifying and connecting proposal teams with faculty experts and corporate collaborators) and the development/review of commercialization plans. Please contact the Research Development Team for assistance in these areas.

Award contract and IP

ARPA-H places significant importance on intellectual property as part of its awarding, planning and implementation processes. IP rights are negotiated between ARPA-H and the proposers during award discussions.

It is important that proposing teams understand that ARPA-H’s approach to IP is designed to primarily facilitate broad industry participation, while ensuring unrestricted access and utility/application of the resulting technologies to benefit public health. This means that proposers will need to weigh the IP implications should they wish to pursue alternative commercial paths for their invention.

ARPA-H awards will be categorized as Cooperative Agreements and Other Transactions, not grants. These contract mechanisms allow close collaboration, and oversight from ARPA-H throughout the project as well as IP flexibility to ensure the objectives of funded projects can be realized. The specific type of contracting mechanism for any award will be based on what best fits the project.

Additional things to know

The three ongoing concurrent awards with ARPA-H limit applies to the prime FAR procurements, cooperative agreements, grants, and/or OTs an entity has with ARPA-H.

Each Program has a Proposers’ Day/Proposer’s Call, which is an optional event for potential proposer community, but they are important networking and information gathering opportunities that applicants should try to attend.

Unlike other federal grants, the ARPA-H program staff are active members of each grant project. They provide regular input and monitor milestones against the Scope of Work closely. Applicants should prepare for an especially collaborative, hands-on relationship with the funding agency.