ARPA-H cancels relationships with ARPANet-H partners
In a Feb. 20 email, ARPA-H announced the end of its contracts with Houston-based Customer Experience and Boston-based Investor Catalyst to manage the hub-and-spoke approach to connecting research institutions, investors, and the health industry market. The agency promised in its email, however, that it was retaining its hub-and-spoke structure for service delivery and would have offices in Dallas and Boston, yet still establishing “a more direct connection from you, the spokes, to the hubs and ARPA-H.”
DOE Science Office reorganized (again)
The Energy Department’s Office of Science has reorganized again—a frequent occurrence regardless of the administration or party in power. The latest round of changes deviates substantially from the November 20, 2025 announcement. The newest change will take “a few months before it will take effect,” according to the DOE website, so the impact on energy policy and research remains to be seen.
NSF allots $135M to three existing Regional Innovation Engines
Press accounts this week from Florida, New York, and North Dakota report that the TIP Directorate of the National Science Foundation has awarded each of three of its Regional Innovation Engines up to $45 million in new funds to advance and expand on work conducted in their initial two years of the prestigious program. The recipients are: the Florida Semiconductor Engine; the Energy Storage Engine based in Binghampton, NY; and the North Dakota AgTech Engine.
Nearly $20B unspent funds in NTIA broadband program promised not to be rescinded
If you’re in a well-connected part of the country paying whatever you do each month for 5G, you’re probably taking broadband relatively for granted at this point. For every region of the country to be able to fully exploit all of its talent and innovation assets, that same carefree assurance of connectivity needs to happen reasonably and affordably everywhere. It doesn’t yet. Congress appropriated $42 billion to ensure that it was more likely to happen and, in a recent Congressional hearing, Secretary Lutnick promised the $20+ billion balance of those funds will be disbursed as well. Whether that is in the form of another solicitation or reopening review of the existing pool of applicants is not known.
NIH funding deadlines shortened
Much has been discussed lately elsewhere regarding the dearth of new R&D funding opportunities released by the National Institutes of Health this year (14), creating considerable heartburn and uncertainty for the globe’s largest community of top health researchers. No reversal of the trend is evident in the latest weekly summary of NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, which includes no (zero) new requests for proposals but moves up the expiration deadlines of 11 existing grant opportunities. With the end of the fiscal year looming on September 30, are more opportunities to be expected very soon? SSTI members will learn as soon as we do through the members-only Funding Supplement.