Foam glass granulate made of recovered glass belongs to the recycled building materials, and its properties allow for innovative applications. Foam glass granulate exhibits high load bearing capacity and high thermal insulation properties, and thus it may serve as layer for both load transfer and thermal insulation in building parts exposed to the ground. Furthermore, it has draining properties and can be used as drainage. Its low mass density results in a lower loading of the subsoil, and the distribution of the material can be done with less effort and thus more cost-effectively. Many insula-tion materials cannot be applied in building parts exposed to the ground, because they show insuffi-cient compression strength and insufficient durability against moisture. From a building physics point of view, placing the insulating material on top of the base plate has largely significant disadvantages. Since the insulation is at the room side, the arrangement has to be regarded as internal insulation with the risk of floor slab temperature passing below the dew point. In addition, all rising external walls or partitions are potential thermal bridges, because at these points the floor insulation is interrupted. In contrast, the application of foam glass granules below floor slab and strip footings can be full-surface, thus thermal bridges are largely avoided. Up to now foam glass granulate can be used only for a narrow range of application, because its thermal and mechanical characteristic parameters are not known. In order to evaluate the insulation of the building envelope as precisely as possible, the knowledge of the effective thermal conductivity of the insulation in use is essential. Currently for foam glass granulate no practical values are avail-able, because there is no custom measurement procedure. In general, it has to be proofed that the interface to the ground meets the requirements in terms of structural safety, serviceability, and durability. The aim of the planned scientific investigations is to find the characteristic parameters of foam glass granulate applied as load transfer layer and thermal insulation. The investigation covers experimental tests in the lab and on-site in order to assess the compaction capability of foam glass granulate. Individuals from several institutions such as the Uni-versity of Innsbruck (Unit of Structural Engineering and the Unit for Building Physics), the Vienna University of Technology (Institute for Geotechnics), and the company Technopor Handels GmbH have formed a scientific partnership, which provides the expertise to conduct this research project. A successful completion of this research program would establish the product foam glass granulate as standard solution for combined load transfer and thermal insulation at the interface between building and ground. Subsequently, further fields of application may be identified.