By means of the research program "Building and Housing" the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) intends to generate both basic orientation knowledge and innovative ways and models for building and housing in the 21st century. In this context the idea of a "Zero Emission City" has been taken up. Its suitability for innovative case studies will be checked on a strategic research basis.

The potentials of research and the political and practical challenges contained in the vision of a "Zero Emission City" will be analyzed and evaluated by an exploratory study. In a further step a workshop with experts will be carried out focussing on this conceptional study .

The results of the workshop together with the exploratory study will be processed in such a way that the Federal Ministry of Education and Research can use them as a call for applications for a new innovative research programme with the topic "Zero Emission City".