What's New?
On September 25, 2026, The ARPA-I Ideas Challenge Finals Event was held at U.S. DOT Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the four winners were announced. See the U.S. DOT Press Release for more information.
1st Place: Agentic AI for Freight ($300,000) - Adaptive, resilient middle-mile freight operations.
2nd Place: BIO-BUILDS ($200,000) - Biologically innovative operations for lean, durable infrastructure.
3rd Place: PRISM ($150,000) - AI-powered real-time intelligence for shared mobility.
4th Place: NavSentinel ($50,000) - Resilient, spoof-proof GNSS navigation receivers.
On May 27, 2026, U.S. DOT ARPA-I announced the Ideas Challenge Final Four teams.
Learn more about the Final Four.
Read the U.S. DOT Press Release (the Finals Event was previously scheduled for June 24).
On February 26, 2026, U.S. DOT ARPA-I announced Stage 2 of the Ideas Challenge, open only to Stage 1 winners.
Read the official Ideas Challenge Stage 2 document.
View the Stage 2 webinar recording (passcode - period included: B@&QY1g.)
Read the ARPA-I Ideas Challenge Stage 2 Frequently Asked Questions
On December 2, 2025, U.S. DOT announced 15 winners of Stage 1. The Innovation Workshop (“Ideas Bootcamp”) with the Stage 1 winners will be held on December 9, 2025 at U.S. DOT Headquarters in Washington D.C.
Read the U.S. DOT Press Release.
Learn more about the Stage 1 winners and concepts.
The application period closed at 5 PM ET on September 17, 2025. We received 448 submissions and are encouraged by the enthusiastic response for the Challenge!
View the Stage 1 Webinar recording (passcode: @9G?n$zY) and slides from August 20, 2025.
View the Stage 1 kickoff U.S. DOT Press Release and video from August 18, 2025.
ARPA-I's $1 Million Prize Competition
Stage 1
Submit a Concept Paper with your breakthrough transportation ideas. Up to 15 winners will be awarded $20,000 each for a total of $300,000 in prizes.
Stage 2
Winners from Stage 1 submit full R&D project proposals for a chance to win one of five prizes that total a further $700,000. More details on Stage 2 coming soon.
ARPA-I's Strategic Thrust Areas
Other ARPA-I Programs and Projects
INSIGHTS
The Infrastructure Systems Insights through Geospatial-sensing for Holistic Transportation Solutions (INSIGHTS) project is ARPA-I's first step towards enabling development of practical, cost-effective, continuously updated digital models of America's infrastructure at scale, including streets, highways, ports, rail lines, airports, and pipelines.
X-BRIDGE
The ARPA-I eXceptional Bridges through Innovative Design and Groundbreaking Engineering (X-BRIDGE) program is focused on creating transformative materials, designs, and construction techniques that can deliver bridges at half the cost, in half the time, and with twice the lifespan.
What Are the Heilmeier Questions?
At ARPA-I, we leverage the Heilmeier Catechism to assess and think through proposed research programs.