| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | March 15, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-03-15) |
| Jurisdiction | Federal government of the United States |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent department | Department of Health and Human Services |
| Website | arpa-h |
TheAdvanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is an agency within the United StatesDepartment of Health and Human Services.[1] Its mission is to "make pivotal investments in break-through technologies and broadly applicable platforms, capabilities, resources, and solutions that have the potential to transform important areas of medicine and health for the benefit of all patients and that cannot readily be accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity."[2]
ARPA-H was approved by Congress with the passing of H.R. 2471, theConsolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 and was signed into Public Law 117-103 by U.S. presidentJoe Biden on March 15, 2022.[3] 15 days later Health and Human Services SecretaryXavier Becerra announced that the agency will have access to the resources of the National Institutes of Health, but will answer to theU.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.[4] The agency initially has a $1 billion budget to be used before fiscal year 2025 (October 2024) and the Biden administration has requested much more funding from Congress.
In December 2022, theConsolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Pub.L. 117–328) provided $1.5 billion for ARPA-H for fiscal year 2023. The Biden administration requested and received $2.5 billion for FY2024, and had spent $400 million in research grants by August 13, 2024.[5]
In March 2023, ARPA-H announced one of its three headquarters locations would be in theWashington metropolitan area.[6][7] In September 2023, ARPA-H announced that a second hub would be located inCambridge, Massachusetts, following a bid led byU.S. representativeRichard Neal fromMassachusetts's 1st congressional district andUniversity of Massachusetts System presidentMarty Meehan to have the agency locate a hub in theGreater Boston area.[8][9] The third patient engagement-focused hub was established in Dallas, Texas.[10]
TheDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, formerly ARPA) has been the military's in-house innovator since 1958, a year after the USSR launchedSputnik. DARPA is widely known for creatingARPAnet, the predecessor of theinternet, and has been instrumental in advancing hardened electronics,brain-computer interface technology,drones, andstealth technology. Inspired by the success of DARPA, in 2002 theHomeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) was created and in 2006 theIntelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) was created. This was followed by theAdvanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) in 2009 and theAdvanced Research Projects Agency–Infrastructure (ARPA-I) in 2022. DARPA also inspired theAdvanced Research and Invention Agency in the UK and in 2021 the Biden administration proposed ARPA-C for climate research.[11]
The Suzanne Wright Foundation proposed "HARPA" in 2017 to focus on pancreatic cancer and other challenging diseases.[12] A white paper was published by former Obama White House staffers,Michael Stebbins andGeoffrey Ling through the Day One Project thatproposed the creation of a new federal agency modeled on DARPA, but focused on health. That proposal was adopted by President Biden's campaign and was the model used for establishing ARPA-H.[13] In June 2021 noted biologistsFrancis S. Collins (then head of the NIH),Tara Schwetz,Lawrence Tabak, andEric Lander penned an article inScience supporting the idea.[14] Dr. Collins became an important champion of the idea on Capitol Hill and the legislation garnered numerous sponsors in the117th Congress.
In September 2022,Renee Wegrzyn was appointed as the agency's inaugural director.[15][16][17] She was dismissed by theTrump administration in February 2025.[18] Jason Roos served as acting director until Alicia Jackson's appointment as director in November 2025.[19][20]
A White House white paper identifies a number of potential directions for technological development that could occur under the direction of ARPA-H, including cancer vaccines, pandemic preparedness, and prevention technologies, less intrusive wearable blood glucose monitors, and patient-specific T-cell therapies.[21] Additionally, the proposal suggests that ARPA-H focus on platforms to reduce health disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality and improve how medications provided are taken.
One of the first grants from the organization was to its DIGIHEALS initiative for innovative research that aims to protect the United States health care system against hostile online threats. Christian Dameff andJeff Tully, medical doctors and medical cybersecurity researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, as well as cybersecurity expertStefan Savage, were named investigators to the Healthcare Ransomware Resiliency and Response Program, or H-R3P, project.[22][23]