The nationwide obligation to draw up municipal heating plans gives rise to a wide range of research questions. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) has published a new call for funding ‘Vom Plan zur Wende’ (eng. From plan to transition). This supports research work that contributes to the programme objectives of the Mission Heat Transition 2045 and Mission Energy System 2045 of the 8th Energy Research Programme.

With this call for funding, the BMWK aims to accelerate the systemic implementation of municipal heating plans. This is to be achieved by enabling municipal players to quickly and economically transfer new solutions into practice. The prerequisite for this is close co-operation between research and application. At the same time, practical requirements can be incorporated more quickly into the implementation of the municipal heating transition. Broad-based funding or support for mandatory measures is excluded.

The call for funding builds on the central topics of districts and energy system analysis, cross-sectoral system modelling and planning of the funding announcement for the 8th Energy Research Programme. It specifies research questions and approaches in three modules: neighbourhood, energy system analysis and synthesis. The need for research funding in the area of municipal heat planning is explicitly addressed in the funding announcement. It is of central importance in order to meet the challenges of climate change and to ensure a sustainable, efficient local heating transition. (ml)