CRC 1780: FoodDiverse
From malnutrition and diet-related infectious and chronic diseases through to negative impacts on the environment, our food systems are neither sustainable nor sufficiently resilient. One highly promising strategy for changing the script is to make these systems more diverse. “We need greater diversity at all levels in order to ensure global food security and protect the environment,” says Professor Matin Qaim, Director of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn and a member of its Sustainable Futures Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) and PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence. “This means more diversity in fields, on farms, in landscapes, markets as well as in trade flows and dietary patterns.”
Besides its likely economic, social and environmental benefits, however, diversification of this kind would also present sizable costs. The new CRC 1780 “FoodDiverse” will be assessing these advantages and disadvantages depending on the context, degree of diversification and the spatial scale being considered. For example, how do different types of food-system diversification impact planetary health? What constitutes favourable levels of diversity,, and how can this be achieved at various levels and spatial scales?
In order to answer these questions, the researchers from the University of Bonn will be working closely with the University of Ghana. The partners intend to analyze options for a sustainable transformation of food systems and the policy and behavioral changes that this will require. As Professor Qaim explains: “Our empirical research will focus on Ghana and Germany,. The two countries cover a broad spectrum of different agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions, which further strengthens the global relevance of our findings
Joining the University of Bonn in CRC 1780 are the University of Ghana, the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, the German Institute of Development and Sustainability, the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change and the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research. The CRC has secured €15 million in funding over a period of almost four years starting in October 2026.
CRC-TRR 427: When and how have what narratives been told where in the world?
People all over the world tell stories—and have done since time immemorial. The University of Bonn is joining the new CRC-TRR 427 “Historical and Transcultural Narratology,” which is being led by the University of Freiburg and will be focusing on narratives from pre-modern times and various cultural contexts.
It is seeking to come up with a new historical and transcultural form of narratology. “We are striving for a theory of narrative that is historically and culturally inclusive, flexible enough to do justice to diverse narrative formats and functions, and thus opens up new avenues for interdisciplinary literary and cultural studies on a global scale,” says Professor Stephan Conermann from the Department of Oriental and Asian Studies. The University of Bonn’s speaker for the project, he is also speaker for the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn and a member of its TRA Present Pasts.
When and how have what tales been told where in the world? To formulate an answer to this question, the research alliance combines a historical, diachronic study of narratives with a transcultural analysis of narrative texts. By incorporating “old” material and cultures from all over the globe, its approach bucks the prevailing trends in narratology, which focus almost exclusively on Western narratives since 1800.. “We seek to challenge the established Western assumptions in literary history, which are often deeply Eurocentric”,Professor Conermann says. The CRC is making use of both digital and AI-based methods for its work, from prompt engineering to advanced AI architectures.
Aside from the University of Freiburg as lead university (speaker: Professor Eva von Contzen) and the University of Bonn, Ruhr-University Bochum is also involved in CRC-TRR 427, which is being funded to the tune of some €10 million over almost four years. To the press release of the University of Freiburg.
Research into brown fat and immunology extended. The DFG has also extended two CRC-TRRs for a further funding period.
CRC-TRR 333 “BATenergy”: shining a spotlight on “good” fat
Led by the University of Bonn, CRC-TRR 333 “BATenergy“ is investigating “good” fat tissue in the body. Unlike normal fat, this “brown” fat does not only store energy—it can also burn calories and generate heat. The aim is to understand how this fat influences the metabolism and how this can be harnessed to develop new treatments for obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Within the alliance, teams from the Universities of Bonn and Hamburg, the Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Munich are working on decoding the underlying mechanisms of this “brown” adipose tissue under the leadership of Professor Alexander Pfeifer from the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University Hospital Bonn.
The researchers are studying how brown fat communicates with organs such as the liver, intestine and brain, how various types of cells work together inside the fat tissue and what molecular processes cause fat cells to burn energy. The main focus in the upcoming funding period will be on human brown fat and on organoid models that replicate the fatty tissue.
CRC-TRR 237 “Nucleic Acid Immunity”
CRC-TRR 237 “Nucleic Acid Immunity” is dedicated to mechanisms for detecting and eliminating foreign genetic material and putting them into practice in a clinical setting. Specifically, it is looking at certain receptors in the immune system that distinguish foreign nucleic acids from those produced by the body itself and that thus play a key role in fighting off pathogens such as viruses. The researchers in the CRC-TRR want to explain the molecular mechanisms underlying nucleic acid immunity and explore the role that these mechanisms play in the onset of diseases such as chronic infections, autoimmune conditions and cancer. They also hope that their findings will lead to new precise treatments and vaccines.
The CRC-TRR was launched by the University of Bonn in 2018 and has been funded by the DFG ever since. Professor Gunther Hartmann from the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital Bonn served as its original speaker. For the third funding period, Professor Min Ae Lee-Kirsch from TU Dresden is taking over as speaker, with Professor Hartmann and Professor Veit Hornung serving as co-speakers for the Bonn and Munich (Ludwig Maximilian University) sites respectively. Their work is being supplemented by projects at the Technical University of Munich, Heidelberg University and the University of Marburg. The research alliance enjoys close links with the ImmunoSensation3 Cluster of Excellence and the TRA Life and Health at the University of Bonn in terms of its content and personnel. The CRC-TRR “Nucleic Acid Immunity” gave rise to the International Society of Nucleic Acid Immunity (whose founding president was Professor Hartmann), which serves as the global umbrella organization for the research field and organizes international scientific conferences once a year.
... press release of the University of Bonn:
www.juraforum.de [DE] | 19.05.2026
