Federal SPECTRA Initiative Focused On Technologies To Improve Autism Assessment & Treatment

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced new funding to support the development of new technology to improve to autism assessment, treatment, and support. The initiative is called Systems for Phenotypic Evaluation, Clinical Trajectories, Response, and Agency (SPECTRA). Commercial organizations, academic institutions, and nonprofits can submit proposals across four research areas, with the next submission deadlines in December 2026 and January 2027.

ARPA-H released a solicitation (ARPA-H-SOL-26-163) covering four research areas: analysis, modeling, precision intervention, and enabling technologies. The work . . .