Common Terms and Definitions

The funding and award process includes terms that may be new to you. Here’s a list of the most common terms and acronyms associated with the funding and award process at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

Tip: Be sure to reference the Appendix of posted solicitations, documents, and templates for additional, document-specific terms and definitions.

Jump to:  A  |  B  |  C  |  E  |  H  |  |  |  M  |  N  |  O  |  P  |  R  |  S

A

Agreements Officer (AO): Also referred to as a Contracting Officer (CO). A person designated by the agency to conduct pre-award, post-award, and closeout activities. The AO/CO is the only person to legally bind the Government, direct performer to start/stop work, modify agreement terms, or terminate an agreement.

B

Broad Agency Announcement (BAA): A research funding mechanism. At ARPA-H, the BAA has been replaced by Innovative Solution Openings (ISOs). Both are often referred to more generally as a “solicitation.”

C

Contracting Officer (CO): Also referred to as an Agreements Officer (AO). A person designated by the agency to conduct pre-award, post-award, and closeout activities. The CO/AO is the only person to legally bind the Government, direct performer to start/stop work, modify agreement terms, or terminate an agreement.

Cooperative Agreement: A type of federal financial assistance vehicle to transfer something of value to carry out a public purpose and not to acquire property or services (substantial involvement on the part of ARPA-H is expected).

E

Encourage/Discourage: Potential feedback options from ARPA-H for Solution Summary submissions. Feedback will “encourage” or “discourage” proceeding with the submission process.

H

Health Science Futures (HSF): An ARPA-H Mission Office focused on accelerating advances across research areas and removing limitations that stymie progress towards solutions. The tools and platforms developed apply to a broad range of diseases.

I

Initiatives: Initiatives are special efforts designed to rapidly move from proposal to funded contracts or agreements. Unlike programs that are driven by a single goal, these targeted investments follow unique funding tracks across a range of topics. Initiatives may be classified into subcategories, like sprints, depending on the specifics of the effort and the timeline.

Innovative Solution Opening (ISO): ARPA-H’s unique solicitation instrument, which can either be in the form of a “Program-Specific ISO” or “Mission Office ISO.” Both ISO types are generally referred to as “solicitations.”

M

Mission Office (MO): A division within ARPA-H that focuses on specific areas of health innovation or research and development.

Mission Office Innovative Solution Opening (ISO): ARPA-H’s unique solicitation instrument used to solicit potential solutions that fall within a mission office area of research interest but may not be addressed by any specific ARPA-H program.

N

Non-conforming: Potential feedback option from ARPA-H for submissions that do not comply with ISO instructions.

O

Office of Commercialization: An ARPA-H office focused on translating scientific and technological breakthroughs into real-world products and services. Formerly the Project Accelerator Transition Innovation Office (PATIO). 

Other Transaction (OT): Legally binding but flexible contracting instruments that are not procurement contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements and are also not subject to all acquisition laws and regulations. ARPA-H research and development awards are typically in the form of OTs.

Other Transaction Community (OTC): ARPA-H's Other Transaction Community (OTC) is a community of practice that provides individuals and organizations with Other Transaction planning, execution, and administration support. Types of assistance provided includes training, on-the-job support, educational resources, and reports and publications.

P

Performer: An individual, company, or organization that receives ARPA-H funding and is responsible for carrying out the work for a research or development project or effort.

Proactive Health Office (PHO): An ARPA-H Mission Office focused on reducing the likelihood that people become patients. Preventative programs will create new capabilities to detect and characterize disease risk and promote treatments and behaviors to anticipate threats to Americans’ health, whether those are viral, bacterial, chemical, physical, or psychological.

Proposal: A submission that elaborates on the concept and plan to accomplish the solution in a format and manner consistent with ISO requirements.

Proposer: An individual, company, or organization that is interested in, or being considered for, carrying out work on a research or development project but has not yet been selected or funded.

Program: A collective set of research funded by ARPA-H that focuses on a specific problem or challenge that aligns with the agency’s wider research and development goals. Programs are created and managed by an ARPA-H Program Manager.  

Program Manager (PM): ARPA-H Program Managers create new programs and lead research teams towards ambitious solutions. PMs will serve an initial appointment of three years, renewable up to six years maximum.

Program-Specific ISOs: ARPA-H’s unique solicitation instrument used to solicit potential solutions for specific ARPA-H programs.  

Project: An individual research effort that is most often awarded through a Mission Office Innovative Solution Opening (ISO).

R

Resilient Systems Office (RSO): An ARPA-H Mission Office focused on developing capabilities, business models, and integrations to endure crises such as pandemics, social disruption, and economic instability. Resilient systems need to sustain themselves between crises – from the molecular to the societal – to better achieve outcomes that advance American health and wellbeing.

S

SAM.gov: The System for Award Management (SAM.gov) is an official website of the U.S. Government for entities wishing to do business with the federal government. ARPA-H solicitations are posted on SAM.gov, along with important templates and submission instructions.

Scalable Solutions Office (SSO): An ARPA-H Mission Office focused on addressing challenges that include geography, distribution, manufacturing, data and information, and economies of scale to create programs that result in impactful, timely, and equitable solutions.

Selected / not selected: Potential feedback options from ARPA-H for proposals. “Selected” means the proposal has been chosen to move forward in the review or funding process, “not selected” means the proposal will not advance further.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR): A federal program that provides funding to small businesses to help them develop and bring to market innovative products or technologies.

Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR): A federal program that provides funding to small businesses working in partnership with research institutions to develop and commercialize innovative technologies.

Solicitation: Official announcements, often in the form of Innovative Solution Opening (ISO), where ARPA-H invites researchers, companies, or organizations to submit ideas or proposals for innovative health research and development projects.

Solution Summary: A short concept summary document for proposers to submit to ARPA-H in response to an ISO prior to investing resources for a proposal submission. ARPA-H will provide a response on the viability of and interest in the concept based on this information.

Solutions Portal: ARPA-H's platform where proposers can submit Solution Summaries and proposals, register for ARPA-H events, and complete other tasks related to the funding application process.