Three initiatives will support innovation development with industry showcases, shared R&D spaces and fresh funding for projects

1 Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and the Housing & Development Board (HDB) today announced three initiatives to help enterprises in the Built Environment sector turn innovative concepts into market-ready solutions. The initiatives comprise an inaugural Demo Day event that connects solution providers with potential adopters, a new co-working space for building research and development, and a new Call for Proposals under HDB’s Cool Ideas Enterprise (CIE) programme.¹

2 Singapore’s Built Environment sector faces growing demands, including the need to deliver more projects, to improve construction productivity, maintain and refresh ageing infrastructure, and mitigate the effects of rising urban temperatures. Addressing these challenges creates opportunities for enterprises to develop innovative solutions across the building lifecycle. The initiatives by EnterpriseSG and HDB will foster closer collaboration with industry stakeholders to identify real-world needs, test and validate solutions, and facilitate wider adoption.

3 The initiatives were announced by Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State for National Development and Foreign Affairs, at the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) 2026. Together, they offer enterprises access to funding, shared working facilities, technical expertise, and test-bedding opportunities to accelerate the development of innovative Built Environment solutions. These include solutions to make construction safer and less labour-intensive, enable earlier detection of ageing infrastructure, and improve cooling in homes.

4 Joanne Tan, Deputy Managing Director, Industry, EnterpriseSG, said: “Through Enterprise Singapore’s partnership with HDB, we aim to create opportunities to uncover promising solutions and provide platforms for them to be tested and deployed locally and beyond. In doing so, we hope to help strengthen Singapore’s position as a proving ground and launchpad for innovation.”

5 Dr Johnny Wong, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Building), HDB, said: “As Singapore’s largest housing developer, HDB is always exploring innovation that can help us build more productively, better maintain ageing infrastructure and improve thermal comfort in our homes. By sharing our technical expertise and testing facilities with enterprises, we can help promising innovations move beyond the laboratory and accelerate their adoption in the real world and in public housing projects.”

Inaugural Demo Day

6 Jointly organised by HDB and EnterpriseSG, the inaugural Demo Day connects enterprises with potential adopters such as developers, building contractors and precasters to explore partnership and deployment opportunities. At the event, 13 enterprises showcased solutions to address Built Environment challenges in construction productivity, ageing infrastructure and urban heat resilience.

7 The solutions included Envicom’s anti-condensation coating, which helps reduce moisture built-up on indoor surfaces due to temperature differences, such as when air-conditioning is used for prolonged periods. QPBuddy’s digital platform enables contractors, site supervisors and engineers to coordinate construction activities remotely, including monitoring on-site tests in real time. This reduces the need for physical supervision and improves construction productivity. Also featured was Imerys’ SewperCoat®, a protective coating for HDB’s refuse chutes to reduce corrosion and deterioration of chute walls from the decomposition of everyday household waste.

BRIC Lab @ CBR – New co-working R&D space at HDB Centre of Building Research

8 To better support enterprises to test and refine their innovations, HDB will open the Building Research, Innovation & Collaboration (BRIC) Lab on 28 October 2026. The 317 sqm co-working space is located at its Centre of Building Research (CBR), HDB’s master laboratory for developing, testing, and validating technologies for public housing. It will support enterprises participating in the CIE and the Cities of Tomorrow (CoT) R&D programmes, as well as those developing solutions relevant to HDB.

9 Enterprises will have access to CBR’s testing and validation facilities, including those for 3D printing, precast production, solar photovoltaic installation, and cool coatings. They can also tap technical expertise from HDB’s engineers and researchers, as well as receive feedback from potential adopters. This will help enterprises better refine and validate their solutions to meet the requirements of public housing, thus enabling them to be deployed more quickly. EnterpriseSG will complement these efforts by connecting promising startups and enterprises to HDB via the CIE programme.

$4 mil Funding for New Call for Proposals for HDB Cool Ideas Enterprise

10 HDB also supports enterprises in developing innovative solutions to improve the Built Environment, under the CIE programme supported by EnterpriseSG. HDB is launching a new Call for Proposals under CIE, seeking solutions to address challenges in construction productivity, ageing infrastructure, and heat resilience. To support these efforts, EnterpriseSG has committed S$4 million in funding for this call, which eligible enterprises can tap to support the development of innovative solutions. Refer to Annex 1 for more details on the Call for Proposals.

11 Promising solutions may be piloted in HDB’s housing projects to assess their effectiveness, paving the way for wider deployment and adoption. Refer to Annex 2 for selected examples of CIE innovations that are being piloted in HDB developments.

12 EnterpriseSG and HDB will continue to work together with enterprises and industry partners to nurture nascent technologies, test them against real-world needs and, where successful, apply them more widely to tackle challenges in Singapore’s Built Environment sector.

¹ Established by HDB in 2018 and supported by EnterpriseSG, CIE is an open innovation platform that invites enterprises to develop solutions to address specific public housing challenges.

Enterprise Singapore and HDB Launch New Initiatives to Test, Pilot and Scale Built Environment Innovation