Endowed professorship in agricultural engineering

Osnabrück, June 2021

Thanks to the joint initiative of five foundations, the university is able to advertise the endowed professorship "Autonomous, Collaborative Agricultural and Sensor Systems". Also because of the emerging Agro-Technicum and diverse research and transfer projects, the starting conditions are ideal.

Five regional foundations are enabling Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences to establish the endowed professorship "Autonomous, Collaborative Agricultural and Sensor Systems". In the fields of "agricultural robotics" and "sensor systems", Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences has developed into a nationally and also internationally highly regarded location for research, teaching and transfer into practice. Together, the Aloys & Brigitte Coppenrath Foundation, the CLAAS Foundation, the Dieter Fuchs Foundation, the Stiftung Stahlwerk Georgsmarienhütte and the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation are now committed to ensuring that Lower Saxony's largest university of applied sciences can further strengthen its position in this subject area through the new professorship. The foundations are providing a total of 625,000 euros for this purpose.

"I would like to sincerely thank the donors for their initiative," says university president Prof. Dr. Andreas Bertram. "Our university has grown in and with the region and continues to do so. The close interaction with the many players in the agricultural sector is fundamental to this and a guarantor for ever new innovations. Through their joint commitment, the foundations ensure that we can continue to write this success story."

This success story is also visible in the construction of the "Agro-Technicum," one of the most modern research infrastructures for agricultural systems technology and field robotics in Europe. The Agro-Technicum is currently being built at the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics (IuI) on the Westerberg campus. Among other things, it consists of a research hall with five laboratories and an experimental field where, for example, autonomous field robots will be tested in long-term use in the future.

"The Agro-Technicum offers the best conditions for the new professorship to be filled," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Alexander Schmehmann, Dean of the Faculty IuI. "The new colleague will find ideal conditions for innovative and interdisciplinary teaching, interdisciplinary research work and transfer projects with established and new partners from practice." Thanks to the foundations' support, a successor to Prof. Dr. Arno Ruckelshausen, who has played a key role in shaping the university in this subject area, can already be found in the medium term, he said.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Lehmann, Vice President for Research, Transfer and Promotion of Young Scientists, is also pleased with the development: "Together with the Agrotech Valley Forum association, the Agro-Technicum operates the Agro-Northwest experimental field of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and is one of the locations of the Future Laboratory for Agriculture of the State of Lower Saxony. Also against these backgrounds, it is of great importance for our university to be able to advertise the endowed professorship promptly."

Further information:

Jan Lukaßen Head of University Support Tel: 0541/969-3254 E-mail: j.lukassen@hs-osnabrueck.de

Photos/Text: Copyright Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences