Building America Industry Partnerships and Research Priorities for High Performance Housing Innovation – 2018 | DE FOA 0001824

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0001824

The Department of Energy (DOE), through the Building Technologies Office (BTO) and its Residential Buildings Integration (RBI) Program, released this 2018 Building America funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0001824) to push practical, measurable improvements in how U.S. homes use energy. The core aim is to accelerate energy performance gains in both existing and new single-family housing by treating the home as an integrated system rather than a set of isolated components. RBI ties this work to a clear market outcome target: by 2025, reduce energy used for space conditioning and water heating in single-family homes by 40 percent compared to 2010 levels. The emphasis on heating, cooling, and water heating reflects where the biggest, most scalable savings typically exist in residential energy use.

The funding is structured to select Building America building science teams that can work directly with industry partners and real-world homes to develop, test, and validate technologies and building practices. The intent is not just to produce research papers, but to generate solutions that can realistically be adopted by builders, remodelers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders. A major theme is balancing energy and cost performance with risk management, especially around issues that can undermine high-performance construction if ignored, such as indoor air quality, moisture control, and durability. The FOA explicitly builds on prior Building America competitions from 2015 through 2017 and is positioned as a way to close remaining gaps and meet objectives laid out in the Building America Research-to-Market Plan, meaning proposals are expected to connect strongly to known needs and pathways to industry uptake.

Applications are expected to be framed like strong applied R and D projects: a clear problem statement, a defensible hypothesis, and specific research questions or a well-defined technology/practice to be developed and validated. DOE signals that it is looking for projects with high potential impact, which in practice means applicants should show how results will translate into lasting changes in the housing market, such as improved design guidance, validated construction details, commissioning or diagnostic methods, or scalable product and system integration strategies. Partnerships matter heavily here; teams are expected to show meaningful collaboration with affected industry stakeholders (for example, production builders, HVAC contractors, remodelers, or equipment and material manufacturers) so that field validation and eventual adoption are realistic.

The FOA is divided into three distinct topic areas, and each application must choose one topic (though an applicant may submit multiple applications as long as each is aligned to a single topic). Topic 1, Baseline In-situ Fault Analysis in Residential Comfort Systems, focuses on identifying and characterizing how real-world heating and cooling systems fail to perform as intended once installed and operated in homes. This can include diagnostics, measurement approaches, and methods for establishing a baseline understanding of faults that drive comfort complaints, inefficiency, or hidden energy waste. Topic 2, Integration of Advanced Residential Envelope and HVAC Systems, targets the combined performance of the building enclosure (walls, roofs, windows, airtightness, insulation) and HVAC, recognizing that high-performance envelopes change heating and cooling loads and can enable different equipment sizing and control strategies. Topic 3, Gap Analysis of Building Industry Standard Practices, is aimed at pinpointing where typical industry practices fall short of high-performance goals and identifying what changes, guidance, training, or validation are needed to close those gaps in mainstream design and construction.

Administratively, this opportunity is a discretionary grant competition using cooperative agreements, meaning DOE expects active involvement during the project rather than a hands-off grant. The issuing office is the DOE Golden Field Office, and the funding activity category is Energy under CFDA 81.086. Eligibility is broad and includes various levels of government (state, county, city/township, special districts), public and private institutions of higher education, tribal governments and tribal organizations, public housing authorities, nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status, for-profit organizations (including small businesses and other-than-small businesses), and even individuals, which is relatively expansive compared to many federal opportunities.

Key dates and logistics are also clearly defined. The opportunity was created May 10, 2018, with full applications due June 11, 2018 by 5:00 pm Eastern Time, submitted through DOE’s EERE eXCHANGE portal (https://eere-exchange.energy.gov). The system enforces hard deadlines by disabling submission controls at the cutoff time. DOE describes a narrow exception process for late submissions only when technical issues occur beyond the applicant’s control, the applicant contacts the eXCHANGE helpdesk, and the application is successfully submitted within 24 hours after the posted deadline with helpdesk involvement. Support is routed through exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov (helpdesk) and eXCHANGE@go.doe.gov (system administrators). An informational webinar associated with the FOA was scheduled for May 14, 2018 at 3:00 pm ET, providing applicants a chance to hear DOE’s expectations and ask clarifying questions.

From a funding standpoint, the listed award ceiling is $1,000,000, and DOE anticipated making about 20 awards. In practical terms, this points to multiple competitively selected projects, each large enough to support meaningful field work, partner coordination, and data collection/analysis, but still scoped toward targeted, high-leverage problems. Overall, the opportunity is designed to move the housing market toward reliably delivering high-performance homes by validating integrated solutions in real conditions, documenting what works, and giving industry partners the tools and confidence to adopt those solutions at scale.

• The Department of Energy, Golden Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Building America Industry Partnerships and Research Priorities for High Performance Housing Innovation – 2018" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.086.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 10, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 11, 2018 Submission Deadline for Full Applications 06/11/2018, 500 pm ET through EERE Exchange at https://eere-Exchange.energy.gov, EEREaposs online application portal.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 20 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Individuals, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

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