ARPA-H

ARPA-H Program ISOs (topic-specific)

Funds United States health initiatives through topic-focused pathways across multiple mission areas and agencies.

ARPA-H Program Innovative Solution Openings (ISOs) are the agency's time-limited, topic-focused solicitations in which individual ARPA-H program managers define a specific transformational health challenge and invite proposals to address it. Each Program is a multi-year, multi-awardee effort typically deploying $50M to $300M total across 4 to 15 awardees over three to five years. Individual award sizes range from $2M to $80M, with a median around $15M. As of mid-2026, seven Program ISOs are actively soliciting: 1-CURE (universal radiotherapy), BoSS (biostabilization of biologics), CIRCLE (critical-illness immune control), Delphi (self-monitoring health ecosystems), HEARING (AI-driven hearing neurotechnology), IGoR (intelligent research generator), and STOMP (microplastics targeting). The estimated annual pool across Program ISOs is approximately $600M, the largest single funding pathway at ARPA-H.

Eligibility is open to all entity types — for-profit companies, universities, nonprofits, research organizations, individuals, and non-U.S. entities — subject to BAA Section III.A.2 requirements. Award instruments are cooperative agreements, Other Transactions, or contracts, not traditional grants. TRL eligibility spans 2 to 7. Each Program ISO has its own open period, typically 8 to 12 weeks from posting to close. Cost share is not required but may be a positive evaluation factor for commercially relevant projects.

Application flow requires a 3-page Abstract submission first; full proposals are invited by ARPA-H after abstract review; a detailed cost proposal follows only at the end. Applicants should monitor the ARPA-H website and specific Mission Office pages closely, as ISOs open and close on irregular schedules. To compete effectively, teams should demonstrate that their technical approach is genuinely transformational — not incremental — and that it cannot be advanced through conventional NIH mechanisms or private R&D investment.