보건복지부 영문홈페이지

Transformative R&D to Address National Challenges,

Korean ARPA-H Project Officially Launched

 

- Announcement of projects aimed at addressing national challenges

in health security and welfare/care sectors -

 

- KRW 55 billion in research funding over the next five years for developing ultra-long-term vaccine storage technology, establishing a decentralized vaccine production system,

and developing multi-modal therapeutic techniques for sarcopenia -

 

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW, Minister Cho KyooHong) and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI, President Cha SoonDo) held a launch ceremony for the Korean ARPA-H initiative team(Director Sun Kyung) on Friday, July 26, at 2 PM. During the event, they introduced the first projects for 2024 and invited research proposals to carry out them.

 

* Korean ARPA-H Initiative: This mission-oriented R&D project is modeled after the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which focuses on challenge-driven and transformative research and development in the healthcare field.

 

The Korean ARPA-H initiative aims to address national challenges through ambitious projects, bringing transformative changes to healthcare and health services that can be directly felt by the public.

 

In May of this year, the government hired two project managers (PMs) to lead the missions of health security and welfare/care among the five key missions* of the Korean ARPA-H initiative. These PMs, based on big data analysis and expert consultations, have led planning a total of three projects.

 

* Five Key Missions: ① Establishing Health Security, ② Overcoming Unconquered Diseases, ③ Transforming Biohealth, ④ Improving Welfare and Care, ⑤ Transforming Essential Medical Services

 

The first Korean ARPA-H projects are: ① Developing ultra-long-term vaccine storage technology, ② Establishing a decentralized vaccine production system, and ③ Developing multi-modal therapeutic techniques for sarcopenia. The calls for research proposals for each project will be open for 30 days, from July 26 (Friday) to August 26 (Monday), with the selection of research institutions planned for September. The government will provide a total of KRW 55 billion in research funding over five years for these three projects.

 

Meanwhile, the recruitment process for PMs for the remaining three missions is underway. Once PMs are hired by the end of August, they will plan projects and issue calls for research proposals.

 

Detailed information and submission forms for this announcement can be found on the MOHW website (www.mohw.go.kr), the Integrated R&D Information System (www.iris.go.kr), and the KHIDI Health Technology Information System (www.htdream.kr).

 

At the inauguration ceremony, MOHW Minister Cho KyooHong stated, “The Korean ARPA-H initiative is our first step in enhancing our biohealth technology competitiveness amid intense global competition. We aim to pursue research that brings about change, rather than research that fades into obscurity, and to pursue development of technologies that will become our core competitive strengths.”

 

He added, “Innovation can only be achieved through the participation of creative and capable researchers. We will actively support PMs and researchers so they can freely demonstrate their capabilities and achieve results in a challenge-driven and transformative R&D system.” ///