PhenoRob’s interdisciplinary teams study innovative cultivation systems and technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in order to develop future-proof solutions for the agriculture sector. Jessika Roswall, European Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, talked to the researchers from the Cluster of Excellence about topics including what issues are most important to them at the moment and where they see the greatest need for further EU legislation.
“I am very happy I had the opportunity to exchange with researchers at the University of Bonn to learn from their work driving innovation in agriculture in a sustainable way and by making the best use of AI and new technologies to make crop cultivation more efficient in the future. Research is crucial to deliver on food security which is an important European priority,” Roswall said.
University management was also represented at the meeting in the person of Professor Annette Scheersoi, Vice Rector for Sustainability at the University of Bonn. “The interest shown by Jessika Roswall illustrates just how important the research being done at our University is for the sustainable transformation of the agricultural and food system,” she explained. “We want to combine scientific excellence with social responsibility, and the European Commissioner’s visit makes it clear that we’re highly visible and effective as we continue along this pathway.”
About the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence
Funded as part of the German Excellence Strategy, the research alliance—whose full title is “PhenoRob – Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production”—is championing a technology-driven transformation of the agriculture industry. The Cluster of Excellence focuses on developing innovative, sustainable cultivation systems and advancing new technologies such as robotics, AI and sensor-based phenotyping in a bid to bring about the (resource-)efficient cultivation of crops to produce food and renewable raw materials. Interdisciplinary teams are studying new ways to harness the potential for automation in the fields, use less pesticide and fertilizer and find groundbreaking solutions for agricultural systems as well as investigating how new technologies and ideas can be translated into agricultural practice, policymaking and the economy without neglecting any stakeholder’s interests. PhenoRob has already given rise to several start-ups.
Visit https://www.phenorob.de/ for more information.