How can we transform agricultural landscapes in a sustainable way?
The Innovation Centre for Agricultural System Transformation (IAT) will be established as a new research and service unit of ZALF in cooperation with the Justus Liebig University Giessen, the University of Kassel and the Hochschule Geisenheim University. The focus will be on the joint development of sustainable and context-related solutions for agricultural and food systems in co-design processes.
Through research in, on and with living labs, we will develop and test viable solutions together with local actors - for sustainable, resource-conserving management of agricultural landscapes.
From 2026, five Living Labs are to be established in Brandenburg and Hesse in cooperation with regional stakeholders. Long-term, multi-decade cooperation structures will be developed with relevant stakeholders in land use and policy, both locally and at the landscape scale. The Living Labs will address issues of particular regional importance for land use and regional value creation, such as mixed cropping on unproductive soils in Brandenburg or sustainable viticulture in Hesse, to name just two examples.
Two coordination offices will be set up at ZALF in Müncheberg (Brandenburg) and Giessen (Hesse) to support research in cooperation with stakeholders. Nine joint professorships and other working groups will be established at ZALF and the partner institutions to complement the existing research areas at ZALF.
The IAT will create a novel and sustainable infrastructure for transdisciplinary research, knowledge exchange and innovation. To this end, it will both integrate existing research expertise at ZALF and create new expertise for collaborative work.
In doing so, we take up key recommendations of the Future Commission on Agriculture, which in its final report (2021) emphasises the systemic relevance of agriculture and underlines the importance of a sustainable transformation of the agricultural and food system.
The IAT will be established as a "permanent, strategic special unit" that has been successfully evaluated in a multi-stage process by the Leibniz Association and the German Council of Science and Humanities.
More ...
Our Working Groups
Working groups in Brandenburg (BB) and Hesse (HE) – in development
Co-Design of land use systems
Co-Design of value networks
Participatory evaluation
Method development (monitoring, data analysis & modeling for living lab research)
Development & analysis of living labs
Living Lab infrastructures (monitoring, data, models) - Service
Coordination and IAT Academy - Service
The IAT will create new positions in research, services and administration in Brandenburg and at three locations in Hesse. You can find the corresponding job advertisements in our
job offers from the year 2025 onwards.
The 5 living labs - in development
East Brandenburg arable farming region (multifunctional and diverse arable farming systems)
Havelländisches Luch (climate protection and grassland use in fenland regions)
North Hessian Loess plain (intensified organic farming)
Hessian low mountain range (integrated plant-animal-agricultural systems)
Rheingau (multifunctional and climate-resilient viticulture systems)
ZALF is already involved in setting up individual Living Labs in direct exchange with regional stakeholders. To start with, ZALF is piloting a Living Lab in East Brandenburg, Germany. Are you interested in collaborating with us? We are looking forward to working with you!
Information about the current process will follow soon.
In the long term, we aim to establish, develop and network further agricultural Living Labs alongside the five IAT Living Labs.
The research topics of the Innovation Centre for Agricultural System Transformation (IAT) address the following UN sustainability goals, which are also anchored in the German Sustainable Development Strategy: Zero Hunger (2), Good Health and Well-being (3), Clean Water and Sanitation (6), Affordable and Clean Energy (7), Responsible Consumption and Production (12), Climate Action (13), Life Below Water (14) and Life on Land (15).
