Solving Intractable Diseases with Innovative R&D... Public Hearing on the Korean-style ARPA-H Project

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute held a public hearing on the 27th regarding the 'Korean-style ARPA (ARPA)-H Project.' The 'Korean-style ARPA-H Project' aims to rapidly solve national health challenges such as the next pandemic, super-aging, and essential medical crises by benchmarking the U.S. challenge-driven research and development (R&D) systems, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). It promotes mission-oriented R&D that is high-cost and high-difficulty but has a significant ripple effect.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. recognized the limitations of its existing R&D system and established ARPA-H last year, applying the Department of Defense DARPA model?which has been the cradle of innovative technologies such as the internet and GPS?to the bio sector by focusing on supporting challenging and innovative research.

Renee Wegrzyn, the inaugural director of U.S. ARPA-H, stated in the keynote speech, "ARPA-H aims to overcome seemingly impossible barriers by funding high-risk, high-reward projects," adding, "In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Korea-U.S. alliance, we look forward to deeper and broader cooperation in the field of science and technology, and ARPA-H also anticipates opportunities to collaborate with Korea."

The 'Korean-style ARPA-H Project' supports challenging and innovative R&D with high difficulty but significant impact to solve five challenging issues: establishing health security, overcoming unconquered diseases, securing biohealth super-gap technologies, improving welfare and care, and building a regional complete system for essential medical care. It minimizes bureaucracy and manages research projects flexibly and swiftly centered on Project Managers (PMs). To create innovative research outcomes, it also supports global cooperation with outstanding overseas institutions. Furthermore, in the event of health security crises such as pandemics, it establishes a Fast Track system to promptly initiate R&D and enhance response capabilities.

Yoon Soo-hyun, team leader of the Biohealth R&D Innovation Task Force at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Health and Medical Technology Development Division, explained, "The project will be organized as a specialized support organization within the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, but the independence of the project team will be guaranteed," adding, "We will create a structure where various experts and stakeholders can participate in discussions, including advisory groups of the special committee, a task force for identifying challenges, and expert advisory groups by field."

The Korean-style ARPA-H Special Committee consists of 10 private experts from industry, academia, research, and hospitals, as well as government members, within the Health and Medical Technology Policy Deliberation Committee. The project team will be composed of a General Support Center, PM Center, and Essential Medical Care Center.

Jeon Byung-wang, director of the Health and Medical Policy Office at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "'The Korean-style ARPA-H Project' is an innovative R&D system that we have never tried before," adding, "Primarily, it will protect the lives and health of the people from urgent national challenges such as essential medical crises, pandemics, and super-aging, and furthermore, secure super-gap technologies in the biohealth sector to establish Korea as a global leader."

Cha Soon-do, president of the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, emphasized, "The core of the 'Korean-style ARPA-H Project' is the will to move forward to solve a single challenge without fear of failure," and said, "Please look forward to the completely transformed quality of life for the people and Korea’s health and medical ecosystem five and ten years from now."

The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to finalize the project plan by the end of the year reflecting the discussions from this public hearing and announce the selection plan for the core PM (Project Manager) of the project.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.