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.

NSF区域创新引擎发展奖致力于进一步发展和巩固一个能够通过扩大高质量、可持续的单户和多户住房工厂的生产来改变美国住房行业的生态系统。当前的美国住房基础设施行业正处于危机之中。受长期缺乏负担得起的可用住房、快速上涨的成本、20多年来最大的住房建设劳动力短缺以及工业革命前阻碍创新和效率的生产流程的困扰，需要一个截然不同的范式来确保我们拥有高质量的住房库存，以提供所有美国家庭的安全、保障和福祉。NextHouse的愿景是，美国的住房主要在工厂建造，并作为集成和完全工程的产品交付，从而实现更大的可负担性、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技术走廊的核心组成部分，以产生颠覆性技术、刺激新业务和推动经济增长。它的总部设在一个遗产城市供过于求、存在相应种族差距的地区，它将通过扩大工厂建造的住房产业，催化亟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，全自动化和规模化的工厂建造的住房行业将提供创新和客户响应的产品，以更多样化和包容性的劳动力改善可持续发展、生活质量和住房权益。该奖项将用于启动和发展NextHouse组织。领导团队将从制定参与和加强伙伴关系的程序和计划开始，包括征求和审查合作伙伴加强生态系统活动的建议的过程。一个付费的NextHouse行业联盟将作为与普渡高性能建筑中心的合资企业成立，以促进开发与合作公司部署NextHouse技术和工艺的直接途径(即技术管道)。来自研发和劳动力发展合作伙伴的概念将得到资助，以展示技术管道的好处，以加强行业关系。NextHouse还将资助合作伙伴的提案，以支持对建立新的地区性工厂建造住房工厂的机会进行评估。在获奖期间，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的需求并确定其优先顺序；ii)动员地区利益相关者(例如住房当局、经济发展机构、先进制造业伙伴关系)确定联邦/州倡议，并计划在印第安纳州和密歇根州进行试点；以及iii)扩大行业和风险资本的参与。项目团队还将与行业合作伙伴密切合作，确定最终将为计划中的NextHouse总部开发的设施的重要功能，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宅进行规模化的受控测试。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。