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

NSF区域创新引擎发展奖的重点是进一步发展和巩固一个生态系统，通过扩大高质量、可持续的单户和多户住宅工厂的生产，改变美国的住房行业。目前，美国住房基础设施行业正处于危机之中。由于长期缺乏负担得起的和可用的住房，成本迅速上升，二十多年来最大的房屋建筑劳动力短缺，以及工业革命前禁止创新和效率的生产过程，需要一个完全不同的范式来确保我们拥有高质量的住房存量，以提供安全，保障和所有美国家庭的福祉。NextHouse的愿景是，未来美国的住房主要在工厂建造，并作为集成和完全工程化的产品交付，从而实现更高的可负担性、可持续性、弹性、健康结果和公平性。NextHouse创新生态系统将成为中西部科技走廊的核心设备，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剩和相应种族差异的地区，将通过扩大工厂建造的住房产业，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的协同创新和劳动力发展的推动下，一个全自动化、规模化的工厂化住宅行业将提供创新和客户响应型产品，以提高可持续性、生活质量和住房公平性，并拥有更加多样化和包容性的劳动力。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的建议。将与普渡高性能建筑中心建立一个付费的NextHouse工业联盟，作为一个合资企业，以促进直接通道的开发（即，技术管道）提供给合作伙伴公司，以部署NextHouse的技术和流程。来自研发和劳动力发展合作伙伴的概念将得到资助，这些概念将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，以支持评估建立新的区域工厂建造住房工厂的机会。在授予期间，将举办合作伙伴研讨会，以：i）确定并优先考虑研发、实践转化、劳动力发展和DEIA的需求; ii）与区域利益相关者（例如住房当局、经济发展机构、先进制造业合作伙伴关系）合作，以确定联邦/州举措，并计划在印第安纳州和密歇根州开展试点; iii）增加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）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估来支持。影响审查标准。

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.