EHI

Emerging Health Innovators

What if we trained the next generation in the ARPA model of innovation and bold thinking?

The Problem

ARPA-H needs bold vision and creative thinking to solve America’s most pressing biotech and healthcare challenges. Game-changing ideas in healthcare start small—in a lab, a startup, or a young team that lacks critical funding. Currently, there is not an established agency program to develop and mentor early-career researchers. This limits who we reach and who benefits from our programs. Early-career investigators bring fresh perspectives on the front lines of health research but are not as likely to apply for ARPA-H funding opportunities.

The Solution

ARPA-H’s Emerging Health Innovators (EHI) Initiative aims to increase access to government research funding and to seed new ideas that address healthcare gaps in the United States. The program is designed for early-career biotech investigators and innovators to learn how to become the next wave of ARPA-H Program Managers and research performers. By backing emerging talent, EHI ensures the next big health breakthroughs don’t get stuck on the drawing board.

ARPA-H intends EHI to offer multiple Topic Areas of interest across the ARPA-H mission offices. The solicitation will be published annually and anticipates funding 20 or more awards per year.

EHI Solicitation: 2026 Cycle

This is a notice of an upcoming opportunity. The official solicitation, which will contain complete opportunity details, will be posted to sam.gov by the end of September 2026.

Proposals for this opportunity must be led by early-career principal investigators (academic, non-profit, industry etc.) within 8 years after completion of their first terminal degree.

The 2026 cycle will seek proposals across these topic areas:

1. Precision Control of Skin Inflammation without Systemic Exposure
2. Internal Sensing and Targeted Control of Inflammation
3. Deep Brain Stimulation for Mechanistic Sleep Exploration (Deep Sleep)
4. CLEAR-MIND — Restoring the Brain's Drainage and Immune Balance to Enable Healing After Injury
5. Host-Pathway Interventions for Neurotropic Disease (HIND)
6. Protecting Patient Data in Life Science AI
7. Engineering DRT for Programmable DNA Synthesis as Emerging New Medical Countermeasures (MCM) Strategy
8. Prevention of Lethal Alpha-gal Allergic Responses Caused by Tick Bites
9. SMILE (Smart Microbiome-Informed Lesion & Enamel restoration)
10. Ending Preventable Deaths from Ectopic Pregnancy Through First-Visit Diagnosis
11. Transforming the Well-Woman Exam through Objective Data
12. Innovations in Biotransport to Support Long-Term Preservation of Tissues and Organs
13. Organs-in-Action: Next-Generation Human Tissue Platforms for Longevity, Disease, and Therapy Discovery
14. Near Real-time, Non-contact Determination of Sterility in Distributed Manufacturing Systems
15. ICAT (In-Cavity Adjuvant Therapy): Implantable Systems for Local Cancer Control at the Resection Margin
16. Causally-Grounded Alignment for Clinical Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools

If you are interested in this opportunity, or want to learn more, please register for the upcoming Proposers' Day virtual event that will be held on October 13, 2026. Registration for this event is required by October 12, 2026 (11:59pm ET).

Register for the EHI Proposers' Day Please note, you will be prompted to first register or sign in to the ARPA-H Solutions site before you can register for this event.

Key Dates:

These are key dates associated with the EHI Solicitation. Dates are estimates and subject to change.

• October 13, 2026 - Proposers' Day Event (Virtual) This is an optional event for the proposer community to learn more about this opportunity. For complete details about this event, download the Special Notice (ARPA-H-SN-26-161) from SAM.gov. Registration required by October 12, 2026.

• To be announced - Solution Summary due Submitting a Solution Summary is required to move forward with this opportunity.

• To be announced - Full Proposal due* Accepting select applications based on meeting previous deadline requirements.

Related Links:

• EHI Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Proposer Resources:

• Application & Submission FAQ
• Navigating the Application Process
• Common Terms & Definitions

Awardees

Meet the EHI performers selected in previous rounds.

View EHI Awardees

Program News

Announcement Calling the next generation of health disruptors September 8, 2026

Press Release ARPA-H launches initiative for early career researchers and community health centers September 16, 2024