ARPA-H Emerges as Top Longevity Agency Amid Funding and Staffing Fluctuations

The package funds the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through September and includes $1.5 billion for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a research funding agency within HHS that invests in breakthrough technologies to transform health care beyond what traditional research or commercial pathways can deliver. The funding decision came the same week ARPA-H laid off at least 15 employees, highlighting internal restructuring even as the agency received funding for the remainder of the fiscal year.

The staff reductions follow last year’s termination of three ARPA-H programs focused on hospital cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI) for medical imaging, and preventive care. Founded under President Biden with an initial emphasis on cancer and intractable health challenges that are not commercially viable investments, ARPA-H has since pivoted under President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. toward combatting chronic diseases and leveraging AI to accelerate treatments. 

ARPA-H Mission and Longevity

ARPA-H’s mission is to “accelerate better health outcomes for everyone,” prioritizing high-potential, high-impact projects that can radically improve population health. The agency operates through a mission-driven, program-manager model emphasizing rigorous program design, competitive selection, and investments in broadly applicable platforms under four focus areas: Health Science Futures, Scalable Solutions, Proactive Health, and Resilient Systems. ARPA-H also leverages flexible funding instruments (e.g., cooperative agreements and other transactions) and agency-wide solicitations such as Innovative Solutions Openings to speed multidisciplinary teaming and execution.

Longevity initiatives are most explicit within Proactive Health, which aims to keep people from becoming patients by anticipating and mitigating age-related decline. In December 2024, ARPA-H launched the PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience (PROSPR) program to expand healthspan through early detection of physiological changes, development of assessment technologies, and acceleration of therapeutics targeting age-associated processes. PROSPR is designed for decentralized, multi-modal evidence generation — combining continuous monitoring, home-based specimen collection, imaging, and harmonized data — to benchmark biological age and evaluate intervention response on shorter timelines.

Implications for Stakeholders

For providers, payors, and integrated delivery systems, the current realignment presents both risks and opportunities. The workforce reductions and program cuts may delay or narrow certain efforts, but the $1.5 billion in appropriations and a clearer focus on chronic disease and longevity suggest continued investment in preventive solutions and innovative technologies like AI. Health systems, device makers, medical practices, and the biotech industry should track ARPA-H solicitations; align research operations to support hybrid and at-home trial models; integrate multi-modal aging-biology measures into electronic health records; and prepare governance for privacy, security, and AI-enabled analytics. Organizations able to operationalize PROSPR-like designs will be well positioned to participate in and shape emerging standards for health span-oriented care.

ARPA-H’s model of milestone-driven funding, adoption readiness, and platform scalability remains well aligned with longevity initiatives. Indeed, with its dedicated focus on extending healthspan and addressing age-related decline, ARPA-H has emerged as arguably the most significant federal agency explicitly prioritizing longevity as a core objective. Despite near-term uncertainty from staff reductions and program changes, the agency’s sustained funding and consistent goals indicate a continued role in de-risking translational aging research, especially where a viable commercial market may not exist. Stakeholders should anticipate targeted opportunities in chronic disease platforms while incorporating value-based evaluation and equity considerations to support responsible, innovative, and preventive solutions.