Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2022-25

Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)

https://www.nih.gov/arpa-h

The proposed mission of ARPA-H could be to make pivotal investments in break-through technologies and broadly applicable platforms, capabilities, resources, and solutions that have the potential to transform important areas of medicine and health for the benefit of all patients and that cannot readily be accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity.

ARPA-H will:

• Speed application and implementation of health breakthroughs to serve all patients
• Foster breakthroughs across various levels — from the molecular to the societal 
• Build capabilities and platforms to revolutionize prevention, treatment, and cures in a range of diseases
• Support “use-driven” ideas focused on solving practical problems that advance equity and rapidly transform breakthroughs into tangible solutions for all patients.
• Focus on multiple time-limited projects with different approaches to achieve a quantifiable goal.
• Use a stage-gate process, with defined metrics, and inject accountability through meeting these metrics.
• Overcome market failures through critical solutions or incentives
• Use the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a model to establish a culture of championing innovative ideas in health and medicine.

On June 14, 2022, a virtual discussion between HHS Director of Intergovernmental and External Affairs Marvin Figueroa and ARPA-H Acting Deputy Director Dr. Adam Russell was hosted. The discussion centered around the newly created agency’s mission and vision, organizational structure, the types of programs it plans to advance, and next steps in preparation for President Biden’s appointment of the agency’s inaugural director. A link to the recording is here.

NSF: Synthesis Center for Molecular and Cellular Sciences (SCMCS); Division of Chemistry: Disciplinary Research Programs: No Deadline Pilot (CHE-DRP:NDP); Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS); Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS); Mid-Career Advancement (MCA); Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU); Joint DMS/NIGMS Initiative to Support Research at the Interface of the Biological and Mathematical Sciences (DMS/NIGMS)

NIH: Research Coordinating Center to Support Climate Change and Health Community of Practice (U24); BRAIN Initiative: Team-Research BRAIN Circuit Programs - TeamBCP (U19); NINDS Interdisciplinary Team Science Grant (RM1 Clinical Trial Optional); NIH Director’s Transformative Research Awards (R01); NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards (DP5 Clinical Trial Optional); NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program (DP1); NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program (DP2)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Defense Sciences Office (DSO) Office-wide BAA; DoD Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Translational Research Award; DOD Parkinson's Investigator-Initiated Research Award; FY22 DEFENSE ESTABLISHED PROGRAM TO STIMULATE COMPETITIVE RESEARCH (DEPSCoR) – RESEARCH COLLABORATION (RC)

Department of Transportation: Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program (DDETFP) Graduate Fellowship; UTC Program Competition 2022-2026 Grants

Department of Agriculture: Conservation Reserve Program Decision Support Tools

Department of Labor: Targeted Topic Training

Department of Commerce/EDA:  Ocean Exploration Fiscal Year 2023 Funding Opportunity; FY2021 to FY2023 NOAA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

EPA: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM

Department of Energy: Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Industrial Decarbonization through Electrification of Process Heating; Basic Energy Sciences - Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (BES-RENEW)

NASA: ROSES 2022: Living with a Star Science; Space Technology Research Institutes Appendix; ROSES 2022: NASA Innovation Corps Pilot; ROSES 2022: ROSES 2022: Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics Networks

National Endowment of Humanities: Humanities Connections; Public Humanities Projects; Summer Stipends

Private Foundations: Global Partnerships and Grand Challenges

TMF Announces $95 Million in New Funding Focused on Security and Networks: The Technology Modernization Fund announced new investments in the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Trade Commission to support a reduction in legacy systems and new projects that will put agencies on the path towards implementing enterprise-wide zero trust security frameworks. The awards include $64 million for USDA to help reduce its legacy systems from 17 to one, as well as to support cybersecurity improvements for the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Nutrition Service. TMF is also putting $3.9 million towards FTC's establishment of a new security operations center, which the General Services Administration said will allow the agency "to better protect sensitive data and scale security operations to meet future threats." The fund is also providing DHS' Security Information Network (HSIN) service with a $26.9 million investment as the agency seeks to overhaul its information sharing platform  for the private sector and government partners, including first responders and law enforcement. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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IARPA Researchers Want Immersive, 3D Imagery for Training and Simulation: Intelligence community researchers want to make it easier for operators, law enforcement, and rescue personnel to scope out difficult terrain before setting out on a mission, according to a new solicitation. An Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity broad agency announcement, which was issued in partnership with the Department of Interior, calls for the development of software systems “that can create photorealistic, navigable site models using a highly limited corpus of imagery” taken from the ground, traffic cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, and satellites. The WRIVA project, which stands for “Walkthrough Renderings for Images of Varying Altitudes," aims to enhance the intelligence community’s imagery surveillance to make them more realistic. But to do that, they need data and the plan is to collect data to support the research and development, particularly with specific locations that would be most applicable, such as scenarios like refugee camps because they are stood up quickly and needs change just as rapidly. “This research program is aiming to fuse imagery collected at a variety of altitudes – that includes ground level cameras, traffic cameras and satellite imagery – and collected at a variety of angles and viewpoints in order to build an immersive virtual environment for locations around the world that can be challenging to access,” Ashwini Deshpande, WRIVA’s Program Manager, told reporters on June 17. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Pentagon Calls for New Ideas in ‘Third Wave’ of AI Evolution:  key research and development agency within the Department of Defense is accepting new contract proposals specifically focused on advancing algorithmic processing within Defense’s artificial intelligence projects. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is formally soliciting contracts for its new Enabling Confidence program, a subsect within its Artificial Intelligence Exploration initiative. The AIE focuses  on what DARPA defines as its “third wave” of artificial intelligence research, which includes AI theory and application research that examines limitations with rule and statistical learning theories belying AI technologies. “The pace of discovery in AI science and technology is accelerating worldwide,” the program announcement says. “AIE will enable DARPA to fund pioneering AI research to discover new areas where R&D programs awarded through this new approach may be able to advance the state of the art.” The AIE’s goal is to invest in “high-risk, high-reward” artificial intelligence topics that will ideally lead to quick prototype development. Technologies fostered within the AIE will primarily be related to Defense’s national security initiatives. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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