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.

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.

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. 

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.”

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.”

At the PhenoRob and University of Bonn Start-Up DynamoBot, we are building the next generation of precision farming and precision weed management for farmers.

The awarded poster “Mixture toxicity of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in zebrafish larvae and HepG2 cells” was created by Shuhan Wang, with suggestions and guidance from Dr. Benedikt Bauer and Prof. Dr. Henning Hintzsche from the Department of Food Safety, Institute of Nutritional and Food Science.

Higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has published its international subject rankings for the year, in which 1,747 universities from around the world, including the University of Bonn, are compared based on various indicator criteria. Once again this year, the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences achieved excellent rankings.