Professor Jürgen Heß: Chairman of the Board at FiBL Germany

"I am very much looking forward to this new challenge, because the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture e.V. (FiBL) is for me one of the outstanding institutions for the further development of organic agriculture," says Heß, adding, "The organic field days jointly organized by FIBL and the University of Kassel in 2017 and 2019 on the Frankenhausen domain, the experimental farm of the University of Kassel, have greatly strengthened the cooperation. As a new impetus, I would like to participate in the establishment of a new research area 'Sustainable Farming Systems' at FiBL, and also support the training of PhD students." Heß has already been a member of FiBL's Board of Directors since 2003, and has now been unanimously elected as its chairman. Heß has been head of the Department of Organic Agriculture and Crop Production at the University of Kassel since 1997 and has also been active in the areas of knowledge transfer and policy advice for decades, including on the monitoring committee of the BÖLN and on various scientific advisory boards at the federal and state levels.

After 20 years, long-time chairman Prof. Urs Niggli did not run for the chairmanship of FiBL Deutschland e.V. because he wants to turn to new tasks. These include work for the UN, for Agroscope, Switzerland's center of excellence for agricultural research, for FiBL Austria and in the newly founded Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming Systems agroecology.science.

Dr. Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, fellow board member at FiBL and chairman of BÖLW, expresses his gratitude for Urs Niggli's commitment. "He has carved out an outstanding role for himself in organic agriculture and has become a thought leader with global significance. It was not comfortable to work with him. But that is exactly what we appreciate about him, that he promotes innovation in organic agriculture with uncomfortable theses. We very much hope that we can continue to benefit from this role of Urs Niggli."

Contact:
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E-mail: robert.hermanowski[at]fibl[dot]org

Markus Zens
University of Kassel
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E-mail: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de