Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences

Investigating and combining new and existing technologies with Indigenous knowledge systems – that is the aim of ‘iakumama 2050.’ The new research project by the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn (ZEF) pursues the goal of developing scenarios for how humans and nature can live together in regions affected by armed conflicts and raw material extraction. The Volkswagen Foundation is funding the project, which begins in July 2026 and will then be funded for one and a half years.

Pheno-Inspect GmbH, an AgTech start-up that emerged from research work at the University of Bonn, has successfully closed its first seed financing round. In addition to NRW.BANK and several private investors via the Companisto business angel network, one of the leading agricultural machinery groups, CLAAS, has also joined the company as a strategic investor. Pheno-Inspect GmbH was founded in 2020 as a start-up of the University of Bonn by Dr. Philipp Lottes and Prof. Dr. Cyrill Stachniss (Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation and Cluster of Excellence 'PhenoRob').

Violence, organized crime, and health problems: these issues do not immediately spring to mind when one thinks of the Brazilian rainforest. Clearing trees there not only releases stored carbon dioxide and decimates biodiversity. There are many different effects associated with rainforest destruction: Gustavo Magalhães de Oliveira and Yannic Damm from the Institute for Food and Resource Economics at the University of Bonn have investigated violence and respiratory diseases as consequences of deforestation. In the new episode of the Hypothesis podcast, the scientists discuss the thesis “Rainforest protection is bad for the economy” with host Denis Nasser.

For many years, the Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology association (NaLa e. V.) and the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences at the University of Bonn have organized a Christmas tree event. Spruce and pine trees from the Eifel are then handed over to Christmas tree fans. Those who take a tree are asked to make a voluntary charitable donation, with all proceeds going to social and environmental projects around the region.

A short-term oat-based diet appears to be surprisingly effective at reducing the cholesterol level. This is indicated by a trial by the University of Bonn, which has now been published in the journal Nature Communications. The participants suffered from a metabolic syndrome – a combination of high body weight, high blood pressure, and elevated blood glucose and blood lipid levels. They consumed a calorie-reduced diet, consisting almost exclusively of oatmeal, for two days. Their cholesterol levels then improved significantly compared to a control group. Even after six weeks, this effect remained stable. The diet apparently influenced the composition of microorganisms in the gut. The metabolic products, produced by the microbiome, appear to contribute significantly to the positive effects of oats.

The University of Bonn has opened its own supermarket, in which pineapples, canned tomatoes, and toast are neatly lined up on black shelves. The space measuring 55 square meters (approx. 600 square feet) has pretty much everything you’d need in everyday life. The ‘clientele’, however, is very special: they are subjects participating in scientific studies. Here, researchers from the fields of food and resource economics, psychology, economics, and behavioral science are investigating how health- and sustainability-oriented purchases can be encouraged, for example, through product placement and other incentives. Robots are also demonstrating their capabilities here.