Professor Jürgen Heß: Chairman of the Board at FiBL Germany

"I am very much looking forward to this new challenge, because for me the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) is one of the outstanding institutions for the further development of organic farming," says Heß and adds: "The organic field days held jointly by FIBL and the University of Kassel in 2017 and 2019 at the Frankenhausen Estate, the experimental farm of the University of Kassel, have greatly strengthened our cooperation. As a new impulse, I would like to contribute to the establishment of a new research area 'Sustainable Farming Systems' at FiBL and also support the training of doctoral students." Mr. Hess has been a member of the FiBL Board since 2003 and has now been unanimously elected as its Chairman. Heß has been head of the Department of Organic Agriculture and Crop Production at the University of Kassel since 1997 and has also been active in the areas of knowledge transfer and policy advice for decades, including on the monitoring committee of the BÖLN and on various scientific advisory boards at federal and state level.

After 20 years, the long-standing chairman Prof. Urs Niggli no longer stood for the chairmanship of FiBL Deutschland e.V. because he would like to take on new tasks. These include work for the UN, for Agroscope, Switzerland's competence center for agricultural research, for FiBL Austria and in the newly founded Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming Systems agroecology.science.

Dr. Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, fellow board member at FiBL and Chairman of the BÖLW, thanks Urs Niggli for his commitment. "He has carved out an outstanding role for himself in organic farming and has become a thought leader with global significance. It was not easy to work with him. But that is exactly what we appreciate about him, that he promotes innovation in organic farming with uncomfortable theories. We very much hope that we can continue to benefit from Urs Niggli's role."