The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced the Emerging Health Innovators (EHI) Initiative, which aims to engage, identify, and fund early career investigators and community innovators to ultimately increase access to federal funding and bridge existing healthcare gaps across the United States. The initiative is a collaborative project with the Customer Experience (CX) Hub of ARPANET-H(link is external). As a first step, ARPA-H is launching a Network Survey(link is external), which will gather input from the research community to identify research topics and technologies that the community is working on. The survey will also help the Initiative address specific needs that create challenges for the research community. EHI seeks responses from a variety of stakeholders, including current early-stage researchers (those who are within ten years of their terminal degree), community researchers (those who work in community health, non-profit organizations, or faith-based organizations), and administrators who work at minority-serving institutions (MSIs), community-based organizations, health centers, or non-profits. Submissions to the survey are due October 25, 2024, by 11:59 PM ET.
While the survey is EHI’s first engagement opportunity, the Initiative aims to use the information collected by the survey to inform an upcoming solicitation. This solicitation will have two tracks: the Technology-Driven Innovation Track, which will focus on researchers who aim to develop innovative health technology; and the Community-Centered Innovation Track, which will focus on Community-Engaged Research (CER). Track 1 applicants must be early career investigators, including those working at MSIs, and Track 2 applicants must be community innovators, including medical professionals, social workers, or non-profit and faith-based organizations that are working to develop technologies that can address specific community needs. While a solicitation is not yet available, it is anticipated later this year.
Sources and Additional Information:
- More information on the Emerging Health Innovators (EHI) Initiative is available https://arpa-h.gov/news-and-events/arpa-h-launches-initiative-early-career-researchers-and-community-health(link is external).
- The complete survey can be found at https://www.customerexperiencehub.org/emerging-health-innovators-network-survey/(link is external).
- More information on ARPNET-H can be found at https://arpa-h.gov/engage-and-transition/arpanet-h(link is external).