Research Network Climate Variability
Climate change has caused an increase in droughts and crop failures. An interdisciplinary research team made up of scientists specializing in agriculture, plants, geology, computers, and business and economics has therefore decided to focus on basic research to arm farmers, businesses, and society against these urgent problems.
Among other goals, they are aiming for a better understanding of molecular processes in plants and plant communities under the stress of droughts, for new breeding concepts and cultivation systems, and seasonal weather and harvest predictions that are more precise than ever before. A new approach will link this research with Big Data analyses and use them in bioeconomic modeling.
The research network benefits from outstanding preliminary work, cutting edge technical equipment, and a well-established interdisciplinary team. Additional expertise is offered by excellent scientists from other research organizations.
- to understand and to predict processes, responses and potential adaptation mechanisms of crop systems at the molecular, plant and agro-ecosystem level,
- to develop innovative production systems that increase resistance and resilience to droughts,
- to integrate the value of imperfect seamless forecast information, new crop varieties and crop management options and newly available digital information through bioeconomic modeling, and
- to develop novel governance methods and assess likely governance impacts on agricultural innovation systems, identifying critical actors and conditions for “responsible innovation.”