In the year 2000 the German Ministry of Education and Research initiated a programme inviting German cities to create principles and models for their long-term development. In cooperation with scientific institutions and experts, the cities were not only supposed to envisage possible or likely future scenarios, but also were asked to think about the goals they wanted to accomplish and criteria to evaluate their progress. All in all, the research network functioned as a research and learning laboratory. Not only cities participating in the exercises were able to profit from Cities 2030, but also cities and regions not participating in the programme benefited from the exchange of ideas and concepts.