Funding Opportunity: ARPA-H Emerging Health Innovators

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has opened its Emerging Health Innovators (EHI) funding opportunity. This opportunity is for early-career researchers and innovators who are interested in pursuing bold, high-impact ideas in health.

EHI is designed to expand access to ARPA-H funding and give emerging innovators an opportunity to apply the ARPA model to ambitious health challenges. The initiative's technology-driven Innovation track supports early-career investigators developing innovative health technologies. Eligible researchers are generally within 8 years of their appointment at an academic or research institution.

Key Dates

• October 13, 2026: EHI Proposers' Day: Learn more about the EHI opportunity, hear directly from ARPA-H, and get additional information on the solicitation and application process. Register here
• October 30, 2026: Executive Summaries Due
• February 10, 2027: Full Proposals Due
• EHI Solicitation: Review it here

EHI26 Topic Areas

• Topic 1: Precision Control of Skin Inflammation without Systemic Exposure
• Topic 2: Internal Sensing and Targeted Control of Inflammation
• Topic 3: Deep Brain Stimulation for Mechanistic Sleep Exploration (Deep Sleep)
• Topic 4: CLEAR-MIND — Restoring the Brain's Drainage and Immune Balance to Enable Healing After Injury
• Topic 5: Host-Pathway Interventions for Neurotropic Disease (HIND)
• Topic 6: Protecting Patient Data in Life Science AI
• Topic 7: Engineering DRT for Programmable DNA Synthesis as Emerging New Medical Countermeasures (MCM)

Strategy

• Topic 8: Prevention of Lethal Alpha-gal Allergic Responses Caused by Tick Bites
• Topic 9: SMILE (Smart Microbiome-Informed Lesion & Enamel restoration)
• Topic 10: Ending Preventable Deaths from Ectopic Pregnancy Through First-Visit Diagnosis
• Topic 11: Transforming the Well-Woman Exam through Objective Data
• Topic 12: Innovations in Biotransport to Support Long-Term Preservation of Tissues and Organs
• Topic 13: Organs-in-Action: Next-Generation Human Tissue Platforms for Longevity, Disease, and Therapy

Discovery

• Topic 14: Near Real-time, Non-contact Determination of Sterility in Distributed Manufacturing Systems
• Topic 15: ICAT (In-Cavity Adjuvant Therapy): Implantable Systems for Local Cancer Control at the Resection

Margin

• Topic 16: Causally-Grounded Alignment for Clinical Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools

Review the EHI opportunity at arpa-h.gov; prospective applicants are also encouraged to attend the Proposers' Day to learn more.

The ARPA-H EHI Team encourages anyone with questions to attend the Proposers' Day before formally submitting them as common questions will be addressed throughout presentations and there will be an opportunity for Q&A, you can also review some frequently asked questions.