Research
Profile formation and self-image of the faculty:
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the solutions to fundamental societal development problems needed to achieve them are closely linked to the production and consumption of agricultural goods in many areas. As a life science, agricultural and food sciences can and must therefore make an essential contribution to solving these problems. Research at the AEF succeeds in doing so, especially through its evolving innovative methodological as well as interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary orientation. The AEF has already responded to this through the thematic orientation of new professorships in the areas of microbiome research, metabolomics and nutriinformatics, among others, as a central component in the life sciences.
The successful thematic interlinking of the four disciplines of plant, animal, agricultural and food economics as well as environmental sciences up to and including nutritional sciences and the involvement of the various societal stakeholders in the formulation of relevant research questions, the communication of results and the development of proposed solutions is to be further deepened.
The interactive dialogue with industry, stakeholders and citizens is seen as central to this. The inclusion of computer science is emerging as a megatrend of future transdisciplinary research in agricultural and nutritional sciences. On the one hand, this follows from the increasing importance of digitalization within the agriculture and food industry, but also within science and universities themselves. The increasing importance of big data, computational analytics and modeling as well as IT-supported communication such as IT tools in stakeholder and customer communication, applications (apps) in therapy, digital control tools within the agribusiness value chain, in the administrative implementation of agricultural policy decisions as well as in political decision-making represent developments that are already in full swing and will continue to develop exponentially. Recognizing this and implementing it early through the development of innovative professorships is critical to ensuring that agricultural and food sciences can make their contribution to solving fundamental societal development problems.
In this context, the future viability of new agricultural and food management systems to be developed will arise from the extension of a frequently pursued unilateral approach of yield or consumption maximization by the ecosystem-oriented component of resource and climate protection. Such a methodological and thematic development of research is reflected in a corresponding development of teaching at the AEF. In addition to the innovative teaching of new methodological approaches in the current course of studies, the conception and implementation of new international master's programs in the interface area of computer science and agricultural and food sciences is particularly targeted.
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