To achieve THEA’s goals, the program invites proposals under three technical areas focused on (1) retrieval of donor eyes and tissue preservation, (2) optic nerve repair and regeneration, and (3) surgical procedures, post-operative care, and functional assessment. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) funds transformative health breakthroughs using diverse funding mechanisms. These mechanisms allow us to address the critical health challenges that traditional research and private industry cannot. DARPA owes its creation to the October 1957 launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union, which many Americans viewed as a technological achievement as unexpected and challenging as Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Among other countermeasures, President Dwight D. Eisenhower created DARPA to sort out and organize competing American missile and space projects and to delineate boundaries separating military from civilian space research.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency—Health (ARPA-H) is being formed and will be a new vehicle for biomedical research under the National Institutes of Health. As highlighted by articles in this issue of Pediatric Research, research early in the life course critically affects population health outcomes and these articles suggest potential moonshot projects for ARPA-H. The ARPA-H authorizing legislation does not focus the agency’s work on any specific diseases or conditions or areas of research, but instead it empowers the agency’s director and leadership team to make those decisions. The history of funding for pediatric research indicates that without strong advocacy, it is likely that pediatric-focused research will again be left behind. When the Clinical and Science Translation Awards (CTSA) Program was developed in 2006, pediatric focused co-principal investigators were not permitted.
Techniques in microsurgery and gene or cell-based therapies for nerve regeneration may have the potential to be applied to other types of nervous system damage, including spinal cord injury. By starting with the eye’s nerves, the outputs of THEA could improve research into brain repair as well. Subsequently DARPA went on to direct research on antiballistic missiles, nuclear-test detection, radar, high-energy beams, computer science, and advanced materials. In the post-Cold War era, DARPA has played a key role in developing the information technology behind the so-called revolution in military affairs (RMA)—put simply, the substitution of high technology and precision munitions for troops. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) provides research funding to build high-payoff capabilities or platforms to drive biomedical breakthroughs – ranging arpa advanced research projects agency from the molecular to societal – that will provide transformative solutions for all individuals.
THEA
In addition to the research articles presented in this current issue, there are other critical areas of high-risk, high-reward research worthy of exploration. Cell-based therapies and gene-editing technology have the potential to transform the lives of children with some relatively common (i.e., Type 1 diabetes, sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis) and uncommon (i.e., Tay–Sachs disease and severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome) diseases. The development of common platforms to deliver DNA- or RNA-based therapies or stem cells could be developed and modified in a disease or patient-specific manner. Instead of focusing on a disease, could we focus on an approach applicable to a family of diseases? Like for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) boosters, could nucleotide modifications be approved by the Food and Drug Administration without submitting an entirely new application?
Summary of RFI Responses—Opportunities and Challenges of AI in Transportation
Most of DARPA’s projects are classified secrets, but many of its military innovations have had great influence in the civilian world, particularly in the areas of electronics, telecommunications, and computer science. It is perhaps best known for ARPANET, an early network of time-sharing computers that formed the basis of the Internet. The Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts, or THEA, program intends to enable whole functional eye transplantation to restore vision for the blind and visually impaired. In addition, THEA aims to develop new technologies or therapies to preserve or regrow nerves from the eye to the brain. These regenerative solutions could help prevent degenerative blindness and are a necessary step toward successful whole eye transplantation.
Open Mission Office ISOs:
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. government agency created in 1958 to facilitate research in technology with potential military applications.
- We welcome ideas and proposals from all sources, and we encourage researchers to ask the appropriate ARPA-H representatives any questions prior to submission.
- By funding transformative “moonshots,” ARPA-H can change the landscape of health in this country and address some of the most difficult to solve problems in society from novel approaches to cure genetic diseases to eliminating health disparities.
- The law that authorized ARPA-H states that its director has an appointment of four years that can be extended for one more four-year term.
- PMs start with a big idea that, if successful, could transform health care.
- In addition, THEA aims to develop new technologies or therapies to preserve or regrow nerves from the eye to the brain.
Time-sharing was developed to use computer resources more efficiently by allowing multiple programs to run “simultaneously.” In reality, the computer’s central processing unit (CPU) switched rapidly from user to user while waiting for input or while printing results. This meant that users interacted directly with the computer, typing commands and hitting the “enter” key when ready, at which time all of the computer’s processing power appeared to be focused on their program. For Licklider, time-sharing was a problem in communication as well as computing, and he funded time-sharing and networking research at MIT (Project MAC), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of California, Berkeley. Licklider’s goal was not simply to develop time-sharing but also to develop a community of researchers who would make the new machine a central part of their investigations. It was a standard goal of IPTO and DARPA managers to investigate technology of military usefulness, but a longer-term goal was to create a community of researchers who could develop and continually reimagine a particular technology with a common set of standards and practices.
Time-sharing
Topics of interest for the ARPA-H Small Business Program are updated regularly in response to the changing needs of the agency. Potential applicants should carefully view topics or opportunities to determine whether their ideas reflect what ARPA-H is looking for in submissions. PMs seek diverse research performers, generally through Program-specific Innovative Solutions Openings (ISOs). ISOs are usually accompanied by a Proposers’ Day, during which potential performers can meet PMs to learn program details and network.
- Our Small Business Program provides Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards fund small business that can contribute to the agency’s mission.
- It was a standard goal of IPTO and DARPA managers to investigate technology of military usefulness, but a longer-term goal was to create a community of researchers who could develop and continually reimagine a particular technology with a common set of standards and practices.
- The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) funds transformative health breakthroughs using diverse funding mechanisms.
- By starting with the eye’s nerves, the outputs of THEA could improve research into brain repair as well.
- Undeterred by failure, this approach involves program managers from academic institutions or industry who are given independence and resources toward clear goals supporting innovative research, applied research, and advanced technology development.
- Read each ISO description carefully to ensure your submission is appropriate to the specific Mission Office.
- ARPA-H is modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and aims to support transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs.
While this has been remedied, CTSA funding continues to be heavily skewed towards adult medicine. Four years into the All of Us Precision Medicine Initiative, no pediatric participants have been enrolled. Although children comprise 20% of the US population, only 12–14% of NIH funding is directly or indirectly related to their health needs.3,4 Of the 71 designated national cancer centers, only 1 is located at a free-standing children’s hospital. Such disparities are inequitable and represent short-sighted policy since no area of research has a greater return on investment. ARPA-H has been modeled on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a flexible and nimble strategy that has led to Department of Defense breakthrough advances for over 60 years. Undeterred by failure, this approach involves program managers from academic institutions or industry who are given independence and resources toward clear goals supporting innovative research, applied research, and advanced technology development.
THEA seeks to revolutionize the reconnection of nerves to the brain and develop breakthroughs not yet accomplished in transplantation, preservation, and neuroscience to restore sight to people who are blind. Below are the areas in which ARPA-H is currently soliciting research applications. ARPA-H is modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and aims to support transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs. The agency was created in 2022 as part of the Department of Health and Human Services and currently has an annual budget of $1.5 billion. Preventative programs will create new capabilities to detect and characterize disease risk and promote treatments and behaviors to anticipate threats to Americans’ health, whether those are viral, bacterial, chemical, physical, or psychological. ARPA-I will accelerate the development of transformative transportation technologies that decrease costs, increase safety, enhance resilience, and make America more globally competitive.
ARPA-H supports research initiatives and sprints that aim to rapidly accelerate research innovation in a specific area. For instance, during our inaugural Sprint for Women’s Health, the agency sought to address women’s health challenges across a range of topics. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. government agency created in 1958 to facilitate research in technology with potential military applications.
Examples of DARPA-like projects at National Institutes of Health (NIH) include the Human Genome Project, the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) program, and the COVID-19 Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program. These programs accelerated progress through collaborations among academic researchers, industry, non-profit organizations, and government. Computers in the 1950s were room-sized and extremely expensive to build and operate.
Because computer time was so costly, researchers had to schedule limited access time. Any mistakes, typographical or programmatic, in a user’s input (punch cards) would necessitate a long wait for the next available slot in the computer’s sequential schedule. And, because so much computer time was spent inputting data and printing results, the processing power of the computer was often idle.