Press 2025

Sustainable Building in the Service of Research¹

The University of Bonn is continuing to invest in sustainable infrastructure and is currently constructing a new Sample and Vegetation Center for the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional, and Engineering Sciences. The newbuild will meet the most stringent environmental standards and thus serve as a role model for construction that is focused on the future.

Felix Esser receives the university's teaching award²

The University of Bonn has awarded teaching prizes to 14 teaching staff in recognition of their outstanding work. The prize recipients were chosen by students themselves. Professor Klaus Sandmann, Vice Rector for Teaching, Learning and University Development presented the prize certificates at a ceremony on the Hofgarten lawn in Bonn as part of the Universitätsfest attended by over 7,000 people

Experiments on Wheat, Knowledge Rally and Renewable Resources³

“You’re in luck—somebody is just about to leave. There’s still one spot to the left of the sign!” One thing was immediately clear, even before you’d parked your car: heavy rain earlier that Sunday morning hadn’t dampened interest in the open house at Klein-Altendorf Campus.For this year’s event, Klein-Altendorf Campus of the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional, and Engineering Sciences co-presented with the bio-innovationpark Rheinland in honor of its tenth anniversary. As always, there was also a tractor taxi and tours of the experimental fields and orchards.

⁴

Cluster of Excellence of the University of Bonn in cooperation with FZ Jülich receives continued support⁴

Great news for the Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob – Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production at the University of Bonn and the Forschungszentrum Jülich: The Excellence Commission of the German Research Foundation (DFG) has selected the project for a second funding phase. With this decision, PhenoRob enters its next phase, will receive funding until 2032, and will further strengthens its role as an internationally visible center for cutting-edge research in sustainable crop production driven by advanced technologies.

⁵

PhenoRob cluster of excellence receives further funding⁵

It is a huge success for the University of Bonn: in the nationwide excellence competition, all six of the university's existing Clusters of Excellence were selected for further funding on 22 May 2025 and, in addition, both newly applied Bonn cluster initiatives will also receive funding. Among the clusters to receive further funding is the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence of the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences - the only cluster in Germany in the field of agriculture.

⁶

Tilo Freiherr von Wilmowsky Honorary Award for Prof. Matin Qaim⁶

Prof. Dr. Matin Qaim has received the Tilo Freiherr von Wilmowsky Honorary Award from the “Verbindungsstelle Landwirtschaft-Industrie” (VLI). Since 2012, the association has presented the award annually to individuals who have rendered outstanding services to German agribusiness. The prize has now been awarded at the VLI spring conference in Frankfurt.

⁷

Agri-PV enjoys comparatively high acceptance⁷

Photovoltaic systems are increasingly being installed not only on roofs but also on open land. This does not always meet with citizens’ approval. What is known as agrivoltaics (Agri-PV), however, is viewed more favorably, as researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show. In this case, the solar cells are installed in spaces used for agriculture – such as on pastures or as a canopy over grapevines. According to a survey of almost 2,000 people, this form enjoys much higher acceptance than normal solar parks. The study has been published in the journal “Land Use Policy.”

⁸

Climate change is lifting South Africa out of the ocean⁸

South Africa is slowly lifting out of the water – by up to two millimeters per year depending on the region. It had been assumed up to now that this phenomenon was due to mantle flow in the Earth’s crust. However, a study carried out by the University of Bonn now provides another explanation: Droughts and the associated water loss are the main reason for this land uplift. The results have now been published in the “Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.”

Links