Science Minister Timon Gremmels commented: "Climate change, wars and the growing world population pose major challenges for agriculture. In cooperation with Justus Liebig University Giessen and Hochschule Geisenheim University, the University of Kassel is conducting research into agricultural and nutritional issues of the future as part of a strong Hessian network. With its focus on organic farming, the real-world laboratory at the University of Kassel is dedicated to the question of how agricultural production can be sustainably increased and how the entrepreneurial aspect can be included - and in this way is further expanding the great agricultural science expertise at the location."

"This cooperation will expand the work at the University of Kassel to include the new field of real-world laboratory research, which is of great importance both nationally and internationally. Our Faculty of Ecological Agricultural Sciences is already internationally renowned. Now we are forming a strong Hessian network, which will benefit our researchers as well as our students," commented University President Prof. Dr. Ute Clement. "With the Leibniz Center, this Hessian network has a partner with whom we can deepen this research and who enriches the research landscape in our region."

On Friday (25 November), ZALF received the positive decision from the Joint Science Conference to establish the "Innovation Center for Agricultural System Transformation" (IAT). The network will start in 2026, but is still subject to the approval of the corresponding 2026 budget. The IAT forms the organizational framework for developing a total of five regional real-world laboratories in Hesse and Brandenburg. In real-world laboratories, research does not take place in the universities themselves, but experimentally in real environments. In this case, stakeholders from practice (e.g. farmers), politics and society are involved. The real-world laboratories will work on issues of land use and regional value creation that are of particular regional importance. A "North Hessian solution level (intensified organic farming)" real-world laboratory is being set up in North Hesse.

From 2026, three working groups will be established there under the umbrella of the Leibniz Center, which will focus on the topics of organic vegetable cultivation, sustainable entrepreneurship and so-called "animal-based mixed cultivation systems". The latter refers to an agricultural system that combines animal and plant use in order to exploit mutual benefits, for example by keeping livestock under fruit trees. In vegetable growing, the aim is to develop strategies for dealing with climate change. The precise research objectives in all three working groups are being developed with the stakeholders involved.

The professors heading the working groups will be appointed jointly with the University of Kassel (so-called S professorships). The IAT and the research funding offered within the framework of the IAT will create new opportunities for cooperation and research for researchers and young academics at Hessian universities.

Further information: https://www.zalf.de

Press contact:

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University of Kassel
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