Zukunft Land: Innovation Center for Agricultural System Transformation opened - FÖL contributions

ZALF, University of Kassel, Justus Liebig University Giessen and Hochschule Geisenheim University are joining forces to pool expertise for the future development of land and agriculture. The opening event for the Innovation Center for Agricultural System Transformation, or IAT for short, took place in Berlin and Müncheberg on March 17 and 18, 2026.

On the afternoon of 17 March, the official opening of the IAT took place at the Futurium in Berlin with words of welcome from Alois Rainer(Federal Minister of Agriculture, Food and Home Affairs), Dr. Manja Schüle(Minister of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg) and Timon Gremmels(Hessian State Minister of Science and Research, Art and Culture). Prof. Dr. Jakob Edler (Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI) gave the keynote speech on the transformation of agricultural systems: "Systemic, transdisciplinary, transformative. The country needs new paths". A trialogue of science, practice and politics with Prof. Dr. Regina Birner (Head of the Department of Social and Institutional Change in Agricultural Development at the University of Hohenheim), Prof. Dr. Jakob Edler and Henrik Wendorff (President of the Brandenburg State Farmers' Association), moderated by Prof. Dr. Bettina Matzdorf (Co-Head of IAT, ZALF), shed light on the future of the Center. Lively networking then took place at the get-together & marketplace of the real-world laboratories and partners. Several stands of the University of Kassel were also points of discussion and several representatives exchanged ideas.

Youtube video of the opening (2.5 h)
Photos of the event day

In the morning, stakeholders from the regions had already developed future visions for five real-world laboratories. Frauke Deerberg and Thorsten Michaelis from FÖL contributed on behalf of the North Hesse region. This is where the North Hesse solution level real-world laboratory is being created with a focus on intensified organic farming, coordinated by former FÖL employee and eco-model region coordinator Silke Flörke. Witzenhausen will be the location for the model region and new professorships at the University of Kassel and ZALF at the IAT.

The kick-off event took place in Müncheberg at ZALF on March 18. Almost 100 representatives of the four partner institutions and guests worked on the topics of future practical research. The FÖL was represented in the cluster sessions
"Co-designing land use systems in IAT living labs" and "Developing topics together: Infrastructure, data, and monitoring". Frauke Deerberg and Thorsten Michaelis contributed the following ideas:

• Agroforestry - an evolutionary step in agriculture to solve challenges related to the climate crisis (Thorsten Michaelis, Birge Wolf, Alina Gombert, Rüdiger Graß, Miriam Athmann)
• Soil nitrogen contents in free range runs of laying hens - searching for co designed and farm applicable solutions (Frauke Deerberg, Miriam Athmann, Friedhelm Deerberg, Jürgen Heß)
• Bridging Long-Term System Research and Practice: Co-Designing Organic Land Use Systems with perennial legume-grass-mixtures (Morten Möller, Andreas Hammelehle, Esther Mieves, Natalia Riemer, Matthias Wengert, Miriam Athmann, Fenja Klevenhusen, Christian Bruns)
• Medicinal and aromatic crops for ecosystem services and new market opportunities (Hanna Blum, Lena Vosskuhl, Miriam Athmann, Tabata Bublitz, Tanja Jurek, Fabian Weber, Christian Herzig)
• Extension of FAIRagro data fields for agroforestry (Thorsten Michaelis, Miriam Athmann, Morten Möller)

In the afternoon, Frauke and Thorsten contributed impulses to the discussion on the overarching use case agroforestry. The Universities of Gießen and Kassel have established agroforestry systems for research and ZALF and Hochschule Geisenheim University are planning systems. The partners' expertise in this overarching topic complements each other and important transformation steps can be worked on together.