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. ARPA-H is intended to “foster the development of new, breakthrough capabilities, technologies, systems and platforms to accelerate innovations in health and medicine that are not being met by Federal programs or private citizens” and to “promote high-risk, high-reward innovation for the development and translation of transformative health technologies”.1 As Congress and the present White House Administration work to establish ARPA-H, this agency must ensure that its structure supports innovation focused on child and adolescent health and health across the lifespan. 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.

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. 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.

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