Call for Proposals to Grow Housing Production Capacity in B.C.
This program is currently closed for submissions.
We need to grow our housing production capacity, quickly.
For years, B.C. has not been building enough housing. The size of the gap between what we have and what we need to build is enormous. The Government of British Columbia’s “Homes for People” action plan includes more than $11B of investment, but even more can be done with digital innovation. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) report “Housing shortages in Canada: Updating how much housing we need by 2030” forecasts that B.C. will need to add hundreds of thousands of new housing units by 2030.
DIGITAL is here to help. Under our Housing Growth Innovation Program, we’re working with collaborative project teams to develop new ideas, find what works and action solutions that grow our construction sector and build more homes for British Columbians.
DIGITAL is leveraging a $9M investment from the Government of British Columbia to harness data-driven digital innovation to help grow housing production capacity by focusing on three different types of opportunities:
- Digital Design: Utilizing design as a tool for productivity improvements. The goal is to create a diverse portfolio of regulatory-compliant and innovative designs that facilitate housing growth.
- Digital Production & Logistics: Leveraging data to streamline the supply chain. The objective is to expand and develop scalable service and supply chains for modular, prefab, and housing components.
- Catalysts: An adaptable category aimed at addressing emerging challenges. The goal is to overcome growth limitations and enable development teams to tackle barriers to increase production capacity and housing.
Funding for these opportunities is available in one of two types of projects: Discovery Projects or Trial Projects.
Discovery Projects
Discovery projects are feasibility studies, assessments and proof of concept work to study needs, defined potential solutions and complete preliminary tests.
DIGITAL will co-invest between $50K to $250K for terms of up to 1 year to a maximum of 50% of total project costs.
Trial Projects
Trial projects take defined solutions that have had some form of preliminary assessment and conduct pilot projects or full-scale trials.
DIGITAL will co-invest between $400K to $800K over a two-year period to a maximum of 50% of total project costs.
Successful projects will:
- Bring multiple organizations together to harness their creativity, passion and expertise to make a difference in addressing the housing challenges we see in British Columbia, across Canada and around the world.
- Grow Housing. Projects make an impact towards the production of new housing stock and accelerate the growth of housing production capacity.
- Strengthen Digital Collaboration. Projects improve how data and digital technologies can be used to strengthen alignment and coordination in digital permitting and construction. Teams will be free to select the productivity metrics and service standards they wish to prioritize.
- Share Knowledge. The results and learnings from projects will be shared across the innovation network to help others learn and grow. By sharing knowledge and practices, we can help accelerate the growth of production capacity.
- Grow B.C.-Based Companies. The results of this project will help grow B.C.-based companies anywhere in the housing supply chain. As we grow together, B.C. becomes a North American leader in housing, including digital construction and permitting.
Mission-Driven Approach, EOI Template & Program Guide
We emphasize a collaborative approach to innovation where groups of complementary organizations work together to build stronger, more powerful solutions to big problems. As such, we invite teams of at least 3 organizations to come together and make your pitch.
We start with an Expression of Interest (EOI). This helps define the potential opportunity, start building out the core team and drawing line of sight to impact. For EOIs that are aligned, we then invite teams to submit a full project proposal.
Questions on the review status of project concepts can be directed via email to grow.housing@digitalsupercluster.ca.