When news spread of the establishment of a new kind of funding agency for health in 2022, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was ready to act.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) seeks to advance high-potential, high-impact biomedical and health research that cannot be readily accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity. It’s designed for researchers with bold ideas, researchers who know how to collaborate and work across disciplines, institutions, and industries, and researchers who are driven to solve some of society’s most challenging health problems.
ARPA-H offers funding through select programs and initiatives designed by program officers, as well as open solicitations on a rolling deadline through the mission offices. These opportunities provide funding for established teams who are ready to take the next big step towards translation.
“It’s an opportunity unlike any other,” said Gill Snyder, Senior Director of Research and Innovation at the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) at Illinois. “It’s not for everyone, but for those willing and able to take risks and commit to their idea, the payoff is huge in terms of being able to really achieve that moonshot idea.”
IHSI has been learning what it means to put in the work of submitting a proposal to ARPA-H and making the large-scale project succeed. In Fall 2024, IHSI received an up to $33 million award from ARPA-H through the Precision Surgical Interventions program for an end-to-end solution that will drastically improve surgical outcomes for cancer tumor removal, known as MarginDx.
“IHSI is uniquely poised to assist other teams with its clinical and community connections, experience with the solicitation, team-building, proposal, and award phases, plus the lessons learned in implementation and ongoing collaboration and communication with ARPA-H,” said Deborah Miller, Director of Clinical Partnerships at IHSI, who has been heavily involved in project management for MarginDx.
As the Illinois catalyst for interdisciplinary health research and innovation, IHSI hopes to continue collaborating with Illinois research teams and partners for these large-scale projects.
It starts with an idea
When ARPA-H puts out a program solicitation, or Innovative Solution Opening (ISO), it’s a fast process. The idea already needs to be well-developed to be able to respond to the call. While IHSI can’t be certain about what’s coming or when, researchers should expect increased activity again this fall.
“ARPA-H wants you to think big. They want ideas that sound like science fiction and researchers who are working toward the ideas with a plan and some demonstrated success. Then the ARPA-H support can help push development faster,” said Miller.
In addition to the program ISOs, ARPA-H also offers Mission Office ISOs for individual research projects that fall outside the scope of an ARPA-H program or initiative, but that still align with ARPA-H research focus areas: Health Science Futures, Proactive Health, Resilient Systems, and Scalable Solutions. These are accepted on a rolling basis, so established teams can submit a solution summary at any time. ARPA-H then provides teams with feedback on the viability of, and interest in, the concept based on the information submitted in the solution summary.
In the last two years, 44 teams have been awarded through the Mission Office ISOs and previous Open BAA, including an Illinois team led by Prof. Bill King.
“If you have an outside-the-box idea, please reach out to us,” said Maggie Berg, Senior Research Development Manager at IHSI. “We can help you determine whether it aligns with what ARPA-H is seeking, where it might fit in their portfolio, and who else we can connect with to make the project feasible.”
Team-building
One of IHSI’s major roles on campus is to build and grow health-related internal and external partnerships and teams. Through these relationships, IHSI provides opportunities for researchers to learn and connect, engage students in research, and drive new research collaborations.
“Having a truly interdisciplinary team, with industry and clinical partners, is very important for ARPA-H projects,” said Berg. “You’ll need to go through the FDA process, go through clinical trials and to market. You need to really establish these connections well before a submission.”
Using an extensive network both within the U of I System and with public and private institutions across the country, IHSI helps researchers make connections outside of their normal research network. IHSI can determine alignment of your research with internal and external partner capabilities and strategic directions, identify partners who can fill research and resource gaps, and connect you with the appropriate resources and expertise (such as BERD, Illinois REDCap, and contracts experts) to strengthen your project.
“We were able to respond so quickly to the ARPA-H PSI call because we had much of the team, infrastructure, collaborations, and expertise already in place through our Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance for Technology-Based Healthcare,” said Stephen Boppart, director of IHSI and the principal investigator for the multi-team MarginDx project. “Without our Alliance and our cooperative institutions, we would not have been able to successfully compete for this program. This is exactly why we have such collaborative and partnering efforts in place…to respond when there is a call and need.”
And for those research teams with existing work but no program call to respond to, IHSI encourages them to get familiar with the ARPA-H research portfolio, review the Mission Office ISOs, and submit a solution summary. By going through the work of submitting the summary, teams will receive critical feedback that may help them be more competitive for future funding.
Ongoing connection
Illinois is part of the ARPANET-H Health Innovation Network, with IHSI serving as point of contact and driver of both Customer Experience and Investor Catalyst Hub initiatives. As a spoke for both the Investor Catalyst and Customer Experience Hubs, Illinois receives several benefits, including potential funding and networking opportunities with consortium members, government, and other stakeholders. Illinois will also have increased influence in high-profile efforts and streamlined access to information and funding. Researchers interested in getting involved with the hubs may reach out to IHSI.
Once an opportunity is identified, IHSI can work with researchers to guide and manage the proposal process, helping to determine project flow, milestones, and deliverables, and clearly define roles for proposal management, writing responsibilities, and ongoing communication within the immediate team and with supporting teams. IHSI can also help develop a budget and handle submission. IHSI staff are often written into grants, and when they are funded, they continue to be part of the research project team.
“When people work with IHSI, they come to rely on us for more than just the services, but also the experience, the knowledge, the expertise, the problem solving,” said Snyder. “We’re part of the team, and we’re invested in the project’s success.”
Are you ready to discuss your big idea? Contact:
- Gillian Snyder, Senior Director of Research and Innovation, gcooke@illinois.edu
- Deborah Miller, Director of Partnerships and Translation, miller9@illinois.edu
- Maggie Berg, Senior Research Development Manager, meberg@illinois.edu
Or email healthinstitute@illinois.edu and we’ll connect you with the right people!