Broad Agency Announcement (BAA): ARPA-H Call for Abstracts, Invited Proposals

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has issued a call for innovative, pathbreaking abstracts for efforts of all kinds to be considered for invitations to submit proposals for award funding. They are specifically focused on the elevation of novel, creative initiatives that do not simply build upon the current state of the art, but are trailblazing, unique innovations.

Funding Opportunities

The award instruments available include:
- Cooperative Agreements: Flexible instrument that provides money to support a public purpose.
  - Scope conceived by PI, flexible on scope of work, budget, other changes.
  - Reporting requirements determined in agreement negotiation process.
  - Substantial sponsor (ARPA-H) involvement, in addition to other relevant federal, state, and/or local agencies.
  - Payment awarded in annual lump sum; re-budgeting usually flexible.
- Procurement Contracts: Binding agreement between seller and buyer (ARPA-H) in return for monetary consideration.
  - Scope conceived by sponsor (ARPA-H), scope of work, budget, other changes generally not permitted.
  - Emphasis on deliverables, results, performance.
  - All activity is typically required to be approved by the sponsor (ARPA-H), frequent reporting requirements.
  - Re-budgeting opportunities are more restricted than other instrument structures.
  - Payment is based on deliverables and milestones.
- Other Transactions (OTs).
Multiple awards are anticipated.
No explicit ceiling for award amounts.

Requirements

No restrictions stated regarding entity types that can apply for funding – open to for-profits and non-profits.
Focus is on US-based entities, foreign entities may support work but cannot be the primary awardee nor applicant.
“To receive funding, efforts must align with ARPA-H’s mission to accelerate better health outcomes and undertake research that cannot otherwise be pursued within the health funding ecosystem due to the nature of the technical risk.”

Areas of Focus

ARPA-H overall looks to further landmark government initiatives such as the Cancer Moonshot, Advancing the American Bioeconomy; Clinical Trial Readiness; the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health; the National Action Plan for Combatting Anti-Microbial Resistance; or unity agenda priorities on addressing mental health and curbing the opioid epidemic.
- Specific EXCLUSIONS are proposals that only incrementally build upon the current state of the art, policy change initiatives, training/education initiatives, and construction of physical infrastructure.
ARPA-H has 4 initial priority areas:
- Health Science Futures: New tools and strategies that can be broadly applied. Ideas in this category should target diseases that affect large populations, rare diseases, or diseases with limited treatment options. Proposals that are focused on cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease, infectious diseases, and cardiovascular diseases are particularly of interest in this category.
- Scalable Solutions: Ideas that increase access and affordability for patients by addressing health ecosystem challenges through mitigation of geographical, manufacturing, distribution, and/or economic roadblocks. Proposals of interest in this category should work in a human-centered design lens and be focused on cost and timeline reduction; advancement of rural healthcare delivery; telehealth and remote monitoring strategies; and/or scalable pediatric treatment options that supersede mere reduction of dose/size of a standard adult treatment.
- Proactive Health: This category is centered around improvement of health and wellness on an individual scale so that needs for medical intervention will lessen, and/or overall inpatient care needs will be reduced. Proposed proactive health programs will create new capabilities to reveal and characterize disease risk, reduce comorbidities, and promote treatments and behaviors to address challenges to human health, whether those are viral, bacterial, physical, psychological, environmental, or caused by the natural aging process.
- Resilient Systems: Systems need to be strengthened and integrated in order to improve durability and reliability, especially in increasingly frequent times of community stress. Target areas for innovation in this category include software systems, manufacturing pipelines; biophysical systems; unification of patient communities and provider networks; and reliable strategies and infrastructure to prepare for crises like pandemics, social disruption, climate change, molecular disturbances, and economic instability.
The listed ideas are not exhaustive, and proposals that fit any of the categories of priority but are not directly mentioned in the BAA are more than welcome.
ARPA-H will consider ideas outside of these 4 initial priorities if the proposal is a) a novel development capable of improving health outcomes or prolonging wellbeing, and b) would be applicable to a substantial population OR a population that is currently lacking in effective treatment options.
In addition, ARPA-H is targeting investments that will scale up quantitative measurements of health outcomes, end-user adoption, facilitate participatory research, and work to promote positive ethical, legal, and societal advancement.

Deadlines

Abstracts due: March 14, 2024 (EST)
- Responses to submitted abstracts will be one of the following:
  - ARPA-H has not selected the proposer to move forward with the submitted abstract.
  - ARPA-H requests that the proposer submit a full proposal.
  - ARPA-H will not request a full proposal at this time but will place the abstract in the “basket” for potential future consideration.
  - ARPA-H will contact the proposer for explanation on any unclear elements in the submitted abstract in order to determine whether the abstract will be selected or not.
- Abstract review timelines will be provided upon receipt.
- Proposal timelines and deadlines will be included in the proposal invitation, if extended.

Additional Info

- ARPA-H reserves the right to accept proposals in entirety or only in select portions.
- ARPA-H reserves the right to fund proposals in phases.
- Questions can be directed to contacts below, by proposal area of focus:
  - Health Science Futures & Proactive Health
Name: Amy Jenkins, PhD
Email: amy.jenkins@ARPA-H.gov

DARPA background, trained/directed research on biodefense and infectious pathogens for Gryphon, MedImmune, and US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
- Resilient Systems & Scalable Solutions
Name: Jennifer Roberts, PhD
Email: jennifer.roberts@ARPA-H.gov

DARPA and Biden Administration background, trained/directed research on computer science, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, healthcare data interoperability.
- Questions can be directed to: BAAQuestions@ARPA-H.gov
- The complete BAA can be found here.