Business and community leaders across Montgomery County are working together to present the region as the ideal home for a new federal agency that aims to tackle the toughest challenges in health. 

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, is charged with accelerating cutting-edge biomedical and health research. In much the way the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has enabled rapid breakthroughs in national security technology, ARPA-H will be expected to quickly solve a wide range of health issues that aren’t being addressed by traditional public or private research. 

ARPA-H is in a formative stage. Established in March 2022, President Joe Biden appointed its first director, Renee Wegrzyn, in October. On March 15, 2023, the agency issued its first call for funding proposals seeking research proposals aimed at investigating unconventional approaches to improving health outcomes.  

What it doesn’t yet have is an official headquarters. Also, on March 15, ARPA-H announced plans to establish three hub locations for its operations. The first hub will be in the National Capital Region to leverage proximity to the nation’s regulatory agencies and governing authorities. Montgomery County is the ideal choice. The second site, a customer experience hub, and the third site, an investor catalyst hub, could be located elsewhere in the country. 

ARPA-H has outlined a number of requirements for its National Capital Region hub, all of which can be found in Montgomery County. The requirements include: 

• space for 85 to 100 employees, 

• four to six conference rooms and collaborative spaces dedicated to the agency, 

• proximity to ARPA-H stakeholders and federal partner agencies for in-person collaboration, 

• move-in ready, 

• proximity to an airport that is accessible by public transportation and parking, 

• scalable for agency growth, and 

• include co-working space that enables access to workspaces in other geographies to support remote ARPA-H workforce and activities.

Communities across the country are vying for the role. In Montgomery County, more than 60 biotech innovators and other organizations have already pledged their support if the region is selected as an ARPA-H hub. These include biotechnology companies, city governments, local colleges and universities and community organizations that represent the depth and breadth of the biomedical ecosystem in the county. 

“Montgomery County is the ideal location for ARPA-H,” said Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Bill Tompkins. “Here, agency staff and program managers will find a world-class ecosystem of innovation and expertise. Our public and private organizations have a successful track record of collaboration on complex projects, and we are proud of our highly trained workforce, outstanding colleges and universities, and high quality of life.” 

Another boost to Montgomery County’s bid for ARPA-H is its proximity to other leading federal health research assets. The main campus of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Food and Drug Administration are all located in the county. Supporters of the effort say this will make it easier for the new agency to share ideas and information with those working on related research, in much the same way DARPA can collaborate with its neighbor, the Pentagon. 

Initially, Congress seemed poised to force ARPA-H to locate outside the D.C. area in an effort to ensure its independence. But Maryland’s congressional delegation was successful in keeping the state in the mix. 

“We had been working behind the scenes for months to ensure that Montgomery County was not eliminated as a potential ARPA-H headquarters location,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. “We are grateful to our federal delegation’s leadership in removing location restrictions from the bill authorizing the funding for ARPA-H facilities and appropriating another $1.5 billion for the new agency in FY23.”  

Elrich is among the many regional officials to make a case for Montgomery County as a home for the nation’s newest science agency. He joined Montgomery County Council President Evan Glass in sending a letter to Wegrzyn and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Beccera in December highlighting the unique resources in the county. These included the county’s: 

• Large, highly trained life sciences workforce, 

• Highly diverse workforce, 

• Supply of academic research, 

• Dynamic life sciences cluster with both large companies and support for innovative startups, 

• Proximity to established federal research agencies, 

• Strategic location with both transportation and available real estate, and 

• Quality of life. 

“When Montgomery County is viewed holistically – with all of our innovation resources, incredible diversity, workforce and renowned quality of life options,” Glass said, “we know the ideal ecosystem for ARPA-H to accomplish its transformative mission is here in Montgomery County, Maryland.”  

Montgomery County, or MoCo, is the immunology capital next to the nation’s capital. Its business community receives support from the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, which helps companies locate in the region, make connections, tap into the regional workforce pipeline and grow.