5 replies to this topic

[Florin]

The easiest way to get the United States government to quickly increase funding for revolutionary health and longevity research might be to have it create a DARPA-like agency which would fund high-risk, high-reward, health-related research. This new agency might become part of the NIH and perhaps be called "HARPA" or "ARPA-H" (the 'H' standing for "health"). Even though HARPA projects wouldn't necessarily be aimed at increasing longevity, many of them would almost certainly do so as a side-effect of the substantial increases in health which they would be tasked to develop. There is a precedent for the creation of such an agency. DARPA under the DOD has funded high-risk, high-reward, military-related projects for decades. The DOE's ARPA-E, the DHS's HSARPA, and the independent IARPA were all modeled after DARPA and established in the past decade to fund high-risk, high-reward projects related to energy, homeland security, and intelligence respectively. HARPA is an obvious addition to the ARPA series of agencies, and it's mission would be shared and approved of by both longevity supporters and more mainstream, health-oriented interests.

http://www.rollcall....s-216521-1.html
http://www.nature.co...390a/box/1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPA-E
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSARPA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IARPA

[3AlarmLampscooter]

This is an absolutely genius idea. Clinical innovation has been just about regulated out of existence since the Thalidomide incidents and rise of the medical malpractice industry.

The FDA's relevance to innovation today is like if the Navy used FAA design requirements for procuring their fighter jets.
I learned in flight school today that the FAA didn't even allow electronic ignitions until 2011.

There's a fine line between diligent caution and needless chilling effects on improving outcomes, and I dare say the FDA strayed far to the wrong side of it.

[socialpiranha]

I think it could easily be formed as a project within darpa , that would be much more likely rather than lobbying for a whole new department. Then again i'm canadian what do i know about 'merican politics

[Jeoshua]

Other than 'MERICA, what else do you need to know?

[Florin]

It seems that the NIH has requested the formation of a research program similar to HARPA with a proposed budget of $30 million.
 
http://gerontologyre...ain-initiative/
http://lists.ucla.ed...rch/038417.html

[A941]

Good Idea!