Brain Repair of Any Injured Neural Structure (BRAINS)

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) seeks innovative proposals to develop technologies for repairing damaged brain tissue in targeted regions, with solution summaries due July 9, 2026 (Intake Group 1) and January 7, 2027 (Intake Group 2), followed by full proposals due August 6, 2026 and February 6, 2027 respectively. ARPA-H anticipates multiple awards as Other Transactions and has issued Amendment 1 as of June 23, 2026, updating evaluation criteria for proposed cost and price.

Place of performance is Washington, DC. The program targets brain regions excluding the neocortex and spinal cord, including the hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus, striatum, cingulate cortex, substantia nigra, brainstem, and cerebellum, addressing stroke, traumatic brain injury, neurodegeneration, and congenital disorders.

The exploratory topic comprises two technical areas: TA1 focuses on defining and generating region-specific precursor tissue using omics characterization and iPSC-derived cell protocols, with prototype tissue demonstrating greater than 80% similarity to natural counterparts; TA2 addresses optimizing surgical engraftment into adult animal brains, measuring survival, vascularization within 48 hours, tissue structure, connectivity, and functional integration. The 18-month effort divides into two 9-month phases with a downselect at Phase 1 completion.

Phase I awards are $500,000 per team per TA, with potential Phase II funding of $500,000 per TA. Proposals must exclude human embryos, human fetal tissue, and incremental improvements to existing state-of-the-art. Eligible proposers include universities, non-profit organizations, small businesses, and other than small businesses; FFRDCs and federal government employees are ineligible as prime or sub-performers. All proposers require active SAM.gov registration and must comply with HHS regulations on human stem cell research, provide animal subjects research approvals (IACUC), disclose organizational conflicts of interest and intellectual property, and address biosecurity requirements including gain-of-function restrictions and synthetic nucleic acid procurement controls. Evaluation criteria include overall scientific and technical merit, proposer capabilities and experience, contribution to ARPA-H mission and user experience, and proposed cost and price assessment.