Successful Future Homes Project Delivers Evidence Based Insights for the Transition to Net Zero Housing

After three years of collaboration, testing and innovation, the Future Homes Project – led by University of Salford and supported by Innovate UK – has officially come to a close, marking a significant milestone in the journey towards the delivery of healthy and sustainable homes in the UK.

From accelerating low carbon technologies to generating real world performance insights, the Future Homes Project, which used the Energy House 1 and 2.0 research facilities, has helped shape industry understanding of how homes can be designed, built and lived in to balance performance, comfort and sustainability.

The Energy Innovation Agency is delighted to have played a key role in the success of the programme, bringing our expertise in the impact of innovation and how it can help improve the performance of buildings and systems and raise comfort and living standards for occupants.

Through the programme we supported 28 start-up and SME innovators across a range of technologies including glazing, solar, building fabric, insulation, heating and cooling, and more, with provision of go-to-market roadmaps, funding/investment support and business development guidance as well as facilitating opportunities through introductions to buyers.

We hosted four successful Meet the Buyer events, providing a platform for innovators to connect directly with Greater Manchester-based organisations who were actively looking for solutions for their current energy challenges.

The programme also provided the catalyst for a large innovation deployment of vacuum glazing installed by the Diocese of Salford at St Winifred’s School in Stockport, resulting in measurable improvements in energy costs and the learning environment for the pupils.

Particularly evident from the programme was the value of collaboration, with the bringing together of a broad range industry partners and stakeholders to share expertise and learnings a key contributor to the successful outcome.

The Future Homes Project has been a great success, helping to create a strong ecosystem in Greater Manchester to accelerate innovation, support the drive towards net-zero housing and understand how we better deliver new and existing homes which are energy efficient and liveable. This is particularly relevant to the Future Homes Standard, which was under development by the UK government when the project started and will come into force shortly.

The project has helped develop a unique industry-facing innovation ecosystem to systematically address building performance challenges, and accelerate routes to market for innovation.

You can explore the key insights and lasting impact of the project in the Lessons Learned document.