ARPA-H FY26 Funding Sign On
The Honorable Shelley Moore Capito
Chair
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education, and Related Agencies
Senate Appropriations Committee
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Tammy Baldwin
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education, and Related Agencies
Senate Appropriations Committee
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Robert Aderholt
Chair
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education, and Related Agencies
House Appropriations Committee
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education, and Related Agencies
House Appropriations Committee
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chair Capito, Ranking Member Baldwin, Chair Aderholt, and Ranking Member DeLauro,
On behalf of the undersigned organizations, thank you for your work in support of our nation’s science and technology enterprise. As you work to set fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations levels for agencies funded through the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill, we urge you to provide at least $1.7 billion, to be available through FY 2028, for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). ARPA-H’s charge to support transformative health breakthroughs for the benefit of all Americans is unique within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and it is crucial that this agency be maintained as a distinct entity that is funded independently of other health-focused agencies.
ARPA-H was born out of recognition of the challenges inherent to the traditional biomedical research system. Modeled after the successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), ARPA-H takes an aggressive, entrepreneurial approach to developing new treatments, services, and technologies to improve health outcomes. The agency focuses on support for revolutionary rather than incremental ideas and complements the efforts of the commercial sector by taking on challenges that industry sees as too risky. ARPA-H values innovation both in its technical portfolio and in its way of doing business. In the few years since the agency was formed, it has established its own culture of ambition and experimentation that allows the most creative ideas from the research community to thrive. To maintain this culture and allow the agency to pursue its mission, ARPA-H’s funding and operations must remain independent within HHS.
The projects supported by ARPA-H thus far have enormous potential to transform health and medicine. Through its four Mission Offices, ARPA-H has launched 23 individual programs, which seek to answer audacious questions like “What if we could bioprint any organ on demand?” and “What if your body could make its own medicine?”. ARPA-H has supported nearly 150 total projects led by teams of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs from across the country. Efforts funded by 2 ARPA-H are working to create new biomaterials to help joints heal themselves,
rapidly manufacture 3D models of tumors,2 design implantable continuous cancer cell monitoring technologies,3 develop new therapies that use our body’s own electrical signals to treat metabolic disorders such as diabetes, 4 build portable high-resolution diagnostics for chronic eye diseases, 5 and democratize clinicians’ and patients’ access to biomedical research data.6 These and other big bets taken by ARPA-H could pay massive dividends for both the health and economy of the United States.
To complement its support for specific research projects, ARPA-H has activated a nationwide network of small businesses, nonprofits, research institutions, medical centers, and other health stakeholders. Anchored by the Investor Catalyst Hub in Massachusetts and the Customer Experience Hub in Texas, this network includes over a thousand organizations in all fifty states to ensure that Americans in all regions and communities can play a role in ARPA-H’s mission. The Hubs and their network of spokes deliver targeted support for engagement with patients, funders, regulators, and other stakeholders to ensure that ARPA-H-funded innovations are ready to be deployed to American patients, clinicians, and communities quickly and efficiently.
Continued congressional support for ARPA-H is crucial to ensure that the investments made by ARPA-H can achieve their full potential and deliver medical breakthroughs. Growing the agency’s budget, by providing a $200 million increase over FY 2025’s Continuing Resolution levels, will allow the agency to expand its portfolio to new technologies, approaches, and teams to meet the health challenges facing our country now and to prepare for the threats of the future. Providing funding over several years, as Congress has done in the past, gives ARPA-H the flexibility to be bold and dynamic in its investments and to meet the health challenges facing Americans head on.
Thank you for your leadership in ensuring that our research ecosystem remains the envy of the world and for your work to protect the health of all Americans.
Sincerely,
Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research AcademyHealth Activate Global Inc. AKARI Foundation American Academy of Neurology American Association for Anatomy American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP)