Position Summary
Applications are invited for an 18-month Postdoctoral Research Fellowship examining neighbourhood-scale energy innovations in the community housing sector. The position is part of the Community Housing Canada SSHRC Partnership Grant and will be based at Royal Roads University under the supervision of Dr. Runa Das and Dr. Robert Newell.
Buildings contribute significantly to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. Although energy retrofits and low-carbon technologies are increasingly being introduced into the housing sector, buildings are often assessed individually rather than as parts of larger community energy systems. This project will examine how energy innovations can be implemented across multiple community housing buildings and surrounding neighbourhoods to produce environmental, social, and economic benefits.
The research will investigates building and neighbourhood scale innovations for improving community housing energy systems, with attention to the co-benefits, trade-offs, and place-based considerations associated with their implementation. Depending on partner priorities, case-study contexts, and data availability , the research will focus on a selected combination of innovations, which may include building-envelope retrofits, heat pumps, solar photovoltaic systems, distributed energy resources, microgrids, district-energy and heat-sharing infrastructure, Passive House approaches, and relevant nature-based solutions. The successful candidate will develop and apply modelling approaches that combine building and neighbourhood energy analysis, techno-economic assessment, scenario analysis, spatial analysis, system thinking, and visualization. The candidate will also engage community housing providers, residents, governments, and other actors to ensure that the scenarios and evaluation criteria reflect community priorities and practical decision-making needs.
The suitable candidate is a researcher who is interested in conducting applied research that connects technical energy modelling with questions of affordability, well-being, equity, resilience, and integrated community sustainability planning. We welcome applications from candidates from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, including urban studies, planning, geography, environmental science, sustainability studies, architectural science, engineering, etc. The ideal candidate will have knowledge and experience in interdisciplinary research that engages community collaborators and stakeholders in complex sustainability challenges.
Research Context and Objectives
Community housing frequently faces distinctive energy challenges arising from aging buildings, deferred maintenance, limited capital resources, high energy costs, and the needs of residents experiencing social or economic vulnerability. At the same time, the community housing sector presents opportunities to implement energy innovations across multiple buildings and to coordinate infrastructure, energy generation, storage, and thermal resources at a neighbourhood scale. Rather than conceptualizing community housing buildings as isolated structures, this research treats them as components of a collective energy system. This system includes buildings and energy infrastructure, the surrounding built and natural environments, residents, housing organizations, utilities, governments, and other institutional actors. The central research question is: What are the neighbourhood-scale sustainability benefits and considerations associated with implementing different energy innovations in community housing? The project will:
- Identify the co-benefits and trade-offs of different building and energy innovations at the neighbourhood scale;
- Identify the suitability, advantages, disadvantages, and implementation requirements of these innovations in community housing;
- Assess how environmental, social, economic, institutional, and geographic contexts affect the suitability of different energy strategies;
- Develop and compare scenarios involving different combinations of energy innovations;
- Quantitatively analyze the energy, greenhouse gas emissions, building-performance, economic, and community implications of the scenarios; and
- Produce accessible communication materials (e.g., visualizations, maps, etc.) and decision-support materials for community housing organizations and other partners.
Community and Stakeholder Engagement
The fellow will help convene and engage community housing providers, residents, local governments, utilities, technical specialists, and other relevant actors. Interviews, workshops, or related participatory methods will be used to identify:
- Priorities for modernizing energy infrastructure in community housing;
- Energy challenges and opportunities that arise across multiple buildings;
- Technologies and strategies that partners consider relevant or feasible;
- Social, environmental, technical, and economic outcomes that should be considered in scenario evaluation; and
- Practical, institutional, financial, and regulatory barriers to implementation.
Building and Neighbourhood Energy Modelling
The fellow will develop baseline representations of selected community housing buildings or neighbourhoods using available building, energy, spatial, climatic, and contextual data. Depending on the case studies, research questions, and available data, the modelling approach may incorporate:
- Building energy simulation;
- Urban building energy modelling;
- Building archetype development and analysis;
- GIS and spatial analysis;
- Systems mapping and modelling;
- District-energy or thermal-network modelling;
- Distributed energy-resource modelling;
- Techno-economic analysis;
- Optimization;
- Multi-criteria analysis; and
- Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis.
The specific methods and analytical techniques used in the project are flexible. The postdoctoral researcher may adapt and integrate appropriate existing models and open-source tools rather than develop an entirely new modelling platform. Potential tools may include EnergyPlus, OpenStudio, TRNSYS, URBANopt, City Energy Analyst, Python-based building-archetype or district-energy tools, GIS platforms, or comparable software.
Anticipated Outputs
Working collaboratively with the project team and partners, the successful candidate will contribute to the following outputs:
- A review and comparative assessment of building- and neighbourhood-scale energy innovations relevant to community housing;
- A stakeholder-informed framework or analytical model for identifying priority technologies, sustainability outcomes, implementation considerations, and evaluation criteria;
- A documented scenario modelling methodology that can be adapted to different community housing contexts;
- Baseline energy and spatial models for selected case-study buildings or neighbourhoods;
- A set of alternative energy-innovation scenarios developed with input from community partners;
- Simulations and comparative assessments of the scenarios’ energy, emissions, building-performance, economic, and community implications;
- Communication materials (e.g., maps, visualizations, etc.) of baseline conditions, energy opportunities, scenarios, and results;
- Decision-support materials for community housing providers, local governments, and other partners;
- Technical reports or policy and practice briefs;
- Presentations or workshops for participating organizations and broader research audiences; and
- Peer-reviewed academic publications and conference presentations.
The specific scope and number of case studies, scenarios, and outputs will be determined collaboratively based on partner priorities, data availability, feasibility, and the project timeline.
Working Environment
The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary and collaborative research environment at Royal Roads University. The project brings together expertise in building energy performance, energy systems, sustainability transitions, integrated community planning, energy vulnerability, community housing, and participatory systems research.
The fellow will work closely with the project leads and collaborate with community housing organizations and other academic, government, utility, and community partners. The position will involve a combination of independent research, collaborative modelling, partner engagement, project meetings, knowledge mobilization, and academic publication.
The position is expected to be based in Victoria. Some travel within British Columbia or elsewhere in Canada may be required for case-study research, workshops, partner meetings, or conferences, subject to project needs and available funding.
About Community Housing Canada
Community Housing Canada is a research partnership funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Hosted at the University of Alberta and directed by Dr. Damian Collins, it aims to strengthen the capacity and sustainability of social and affordable housing in Canada. Its five research clusters focus on housing supply, vulnerability, building energy innovation, social inclusion, and labour in community housing. The partnership brings together researchers from Canadian and international universities with housing providers and community organizations across the country.
Community housing frequently faces distinctive energy challenges arising from aging buildings, deferred maintenance, limited capital resources, high energy costs, and the needs of residents experiencing social or economic vulnerability. At the same time, the community housing sector presents opportunities to implement energy innovations across multiple buildings and to coordinate infrastructure, energy generation, storage, and thermal resources at a neighbourhood scale. Rather than conceptualizing community housing buildings as isolated structures, this research treats them as components of a collective energy system. This system includes buildings and energy infrastructure, the surrounding built and natural environments, residents, housing organizations, utilities, governments, and other institutional actors. The central research question is: What are the neighbourhood-scale sustainability benefits and considerations associated with implementing different energy innovations in community housing? The project will:
- Identify the co-benefits and trade-offs of different building and energy innovations at the neighbourhood scale;
- Identify the suitability, advantages, disadvantages, and implementation requirements of these innovations in community housing;
- Assess how environmental, social, economic, institutional, and geographic contexts affect the suitability of different energy strategies;
- Develop and compare scenarios involving different combinations of energy innovations;
- Quantitatively analyze the energy, greenhouse gas emissions, building-performance, economic, and community implications of the scenarios; and
- Produce accessible communication materials (e.g., visualizations, maps, etc.) and decision-support materials for community housing organizations and other partners.
Community and Stakeholder Engagement
The fellow will help convene and engage community housing providers, residents, local governments, utilities, technical specialists, and other relevant actors. Interviews, workshops, or related participatory methods will be used to identify:
- Priorities for modernizing energy infrastructure in community housing;
- Energy challenges and opportunities that arise across multiple buildings;
- Technologies and strategies that partners consider relevant or feasible;
- Social, environmental, technical, and economic outcomes that should be considered in scenario evaluation; and
- Practical, institutional, financial, and regulatory barriers to implementation.
Building and Neighbourhood Energy Modelling
The fellow will develop baseline representations of selected community housing buildings or neighbourhoods using available building, energy, spatial, climatic, and contextual data. Depending on the case studies, research questions, and available data, the modelling approach may incorporate:
- Building energy simulation;
- Urban building energy modelling;
- Building archetype development and analysis;
- GIS and spatial analysis;
- Systems mapping and modelling;
- District-energy or thermal-network modelling;
- Distributed energy-resource modelling;
- Techno-economic analysis;
- Optimization;
- Multi-criteria analysis; and
- Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis.
The specific methods and analytical techniques used in the project are flexible. The postdoctoral researcher may adapt and integrate appropriate existing models and open-source tools rather than develop an entirely new modelling platform. Potential tools may include EnergyPlus, OpenStudio, TRNSYS, URBANopt, City Energy Analyst, Python-based building-archetype or district-energy tools, GIS platforms, or comparable software.
