[1] Its mission is 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.
On September 13, 2022, Biden announced his intent to appoint Renee Wegrzyn, formerly of the DARPA biotech office, as the agency's inaugural director, but it is still unknown where its headquarters will be located.
That proposal was adopted by President Biden's campaign and was the model used for establishing ARPA-H.[14] In June 2021 noted biologists Francis S. Collins (then head of the NIH), Tara Schwetz, Lawrence Tabak, and Eric Lander penned an article in Science supporting the idea.
[20] Additionally, the proposal suggests that ARPA-H focus on platforms to reduce health disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality and improve how medications provided are taken.
One of the first grants from the organization was part of if it’s DIGIHEALS initiative to innovative research that aims to protect the United States health care system against hostile online threats.