NSF Engines Development Award: Developing innovative solutions for next-generation factory-built housing (IN, MI)

NSF 发动机开发奖：为下一代工厂建造的住房开发创新解决方案（印第安纳州、密歇根州）

• 批准号: 2315483
• 负责人: James Braun
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: PURDUE APPLIED RESEARCH INSTITUTE, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2026-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315483&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Engines; Development; Award; Developing

This NSF Regional Innovation Engine Development award is focused on further developing and solidifying an ecosystem that can transform the housing industry in the US by scaling up production in factories of high-quality, sustainable single and multi-family housing. The current US housing infrastructure sector is in crisis. Plagued by a chronic scarcity of affordable and available homes, rapidly rising costs, the largest home construction labor shortage in over twenty years, and pre-Industrial Revolution production processes that prohibit innovation and efficiency, a drastically different paradigm is required to ensure we have the high-quality housing stock available to provide for the safety, security, and well-being of all US families. The NextHouse vision is a future where housing in the US is primarily built in factories and delivered as integrated and fully-engineered products enabling greater affordability, sustainability, resiliency, health outcomes, and equity. The NextHouse innovation ecosystem will be a central fixture in the Midwest tech corridor to produce disruptive technologies, spur new business, and drive economic growth. Based in a region with a glut of legacy cities and corresponding racial disparities, it will catalyze much-needed economic growth and improved employment opportunities through an expanded factory-built housing industry. Driven by coordinated Indiana and Michigan innovation and workforce development, a fully-automated, and scaled-up factory-built housing industry will deliver innovative and customer-responsive products that improve sustainability, quality of life, and housing equity with a more diverse and inclusive workforce.The award will be used to launch and grow a NextHouse organization. The leadership team will start by developing procedures and programs for engaging and strengthening partnerships, including a process for soliciting and reviewing proposals for activities by partners that strengthen the ecosystem. A fee-paying NextHouse Industry Consortium will be established as a joint venture with the Purdue Center for High Performance Buildings to facilitate development of direct pathways (i.e., a technology pipeline) to partner companies for deployment of NextHouse technologies and processes. Concepts from R&D and workforce development partners will be funded that demonstrate technology pipeline benefits to strengthen industry relationships. NextHouse will also fund partner proposals to support assessments of opportunities for establishing new regional factory-built housing factories. During the award, partner workshops will be held to: i) identify and prioritize needs for R&D, translation to practice, workforce development, and DEIA; ii) engage regional stakeholders (e.g. housing authorities, economic development agencies, advanced manufacturing partnerships) to identify federal/state initiatives and plan pilot sites in Indiana and Michigan; and iii) grow industry and venture capital participation. The project team will also work closely with industry partners to identify important features for facilities that will ultimately be developed for the planned NextHouse Headquarters, including the HEET (Home Environmental Evaluation Testing) Laboratory that will enable controlled testing of modular housing at scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该 NSF 区域创新引擎开发奖的重点是进一步开发和巩固一个生态系统，通过扩大高质量、可持续单户和多户住房工厂的生产，可以改变美国的住房行业。当前美国住房基础设施部门正处于危机之中。经济适用房长期稀缺，成本迅速上升，二十多年来最严重的房屋建筑劳动力短缺，以及工业革命前的生产流程阻碍了创新和效率，我们需要一种截然不同的范式来确保我们拥有高质量的住房库存可以为所有美国家庭提供安全、保障和福祉。 NextHouse 的愿景是未来美国的住房主要在工厂建造，并作为集成和完全设计的产品交付，从而实现更高的负担能力、可持续性、弹性、健康结果和公平。 NextHouse 创新生态系统将成为中西部科技走廊的核心设施，以产生颠覆性技术、刺激新业务并推动经济增长。该项目位于一个遗留城市过多且存在相应种族差异的地区，将通过扩大工厂建造的住房产业来促进急需的经济增长和改善就业机会。在印第安纳州和密歇根州协调创新和劳动力发展的推动下，全自动、规模化的工厂化住房行业将提供创新和客户响应型产品，以更加多样化和包容性的方式提高可持续性、生活质量和住房公平。该奖项将用于启动和发展 NextHouse 组织。领导团队将首先制定参与和加强伙伴关系的程序和计划，包括征求和审查合作伙伴加强生态系统活动提案的流程。将与普渡大学高性能建筑中心合资成立一个付费的 NextHouse 行业联盟，以促进开发与合作伙伴公司部署 NextHouse 技术和流程的直接途径（即技术管道）。来自研发和劳动力发展合作伙伴的概念将获得资助，以展示技术管道的优势，以加强行业关系。 NextHouse 还将资助合作伙伴提案，以支持评估建立新的区域工厂建造的住房工厂的机会。颁奖期间，将举办合作伙伴研讨会，以： i) 确定研发、转化为实践、劳动力发展和 DEIA 的需求并确定优先顺序； ii) 让区域利益相关者（例如住房当局、经济发展机构、先进制造合作伙伴）参与确定联邦/州举措并规划印第安纳州和密歇根州的试点地点； iii) 增加工业和风险投资的参与。项目团队还将与行业合作伙伴密切合作，确定最终为规划中的 NextHouse 总部开发的设施的重要特征，包括 HEET（家庭环境评估测试）实验室，该实验室将能够对模块化住房进行大规模的受控测试。反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。