Cluster of Excellence of the University of Bonn in cooperation with Forschungszentrum Jülich receives continued support

Bonn, May 22, 2025 – Great news for the Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob – Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production at the University of Bonn and the Forschungszentrum Jülich: The Excellence Commission of the German Research Foundation (DFG) has selected the project for a second funding phase. With this decision, PhenoRob enters its next phase, will receive funding until 2032, and will further strengthens its role as an internationally visible center for cutting-edge research in sustainable crop production driven by advanced technologies.

The announcement of the funding decisions was broadcast via livestream from the DFG headquarters in Bonn. Representatives of all eight cluster initiatives at the University of Bonn, invited by Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch, gathered to watch the livestream together. Tension quickly gave way to excitement when the approval of PhenoRob was officially confirmed – a significant moment for everyone involved and a great success for the University and North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition to PhenoRob, 7 further clusters at the University of Bonn will receive funding. With 8 cluster, the University of Bonn is the most successful University in the competition.

“The renewed funding is a tremendous recognition of the excellent work our researchers have accomplished in recent years,” says Prof. Dr. Heiner Kuhlmann, one of PhenoRob’s spokespersons. Prof. Dr. Cyrill Stachniss, spokesperson of the cluster, adds: “The second phase of PhenoRob enables us to pursue our vision of transforming crop production sustainably, together with a strong and interdisciplinary team – and to develop concrete solutions for the future of agriculture.”

PhenoRob stands for the sustainable and technology-driven transformation of agriculture. The transformation of agriculture is of utmost relevance worldwide and of critical importance for Germany as well. In its second funding phase, PhenoRob will further expand its technology-driven approach and strategically set new priorities. The focus lies on developing sustainable cropping systems that equally address ecological, economic, and societal demands. The cluster concentrates on four core research areas: the advancement of robotics and AI-driven methods for precise and resource-efficient crop production; comprehensive sensor-based field phenotyping to capture plant responses to environmental conditions; the design and evaluation of new cropping systems with regard to their impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and soil functions; as well as the integration of social, economic, and political perspectives in implementing sustainable production methods. Through close interdisciplinary collaboration, a holistic understanding of future-proof agricultural systems will be developed and practical solutions for sustainable agriculture created.
Embedded within the Faculty of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Engineering Sciences at the University of Bonn, the Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob represents the forefront of Agriculture 4.0. Since the first funding period, it has been internationally recognized as a center of excellence for sustainable agriculture research employing state-of-the-art technology and has generated significant impulses for future-oriented farming — also through the successful establishment of start-ups.

On the night of February 24, 2025, at the age of 60, Prof. Dr. Nik Petrinić died.

Nik Petrinić developed and integrated experimental, analytical, and numerical methods at the interface between mathematics, physics, and materials science. He led a multidisciplinary research team that investigated the behavior of novel materials and structures in a wide range of environmental and loading conditions. In addition to his research in materials science, he made important contributions to the field of robotics in agriculture and supported the Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob in Bonn.

Nik Petrinić obtained his PhD in Computational Mechanics at Swansea University. He has worked at Oxford University in the Department of Engineering since 1998, most recently as Royal Academy of Engineering Chair. His activities have also included contributions to research activities at the Centers of Excellence at TU Dresden and the University of Bonn. He was a Visiting Professor and Fellow at the Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob at the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences.

In Nik Petrinić, the University has lost a proven scientist, an outstanding colleague, and an extraordinarily committed university lecturer. At the same time, we have lost a long-time companion and close friend. His untimely death deeply saddens us. We will always honor his memory and mourn together with his wife and children.

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael Hoch, Rector
Prof. Dr. Heiko Schoof, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences
Prof. Dr. Cyrill Stachniss, Prof. Dr. Heiner Kuhlmann, Spokespersons of PhenoRob

Wolfgang Förster won the Outstanding IJCV-Reviewer Award.

ICRA 2024 — Finalist Best Service Robotics Paper for: Efficient and Accurate Transformer-Based 3D Shape Completion and Reconstruction of Fruits for Agricultural Robots

RAL 2023 — Best Paper Award of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters in 2023 for: KISS-ICP: In Defense of Point-to-Point ICP — Simple, Accurate, and Robust Registration If Done the Right Way

RAL 2023 — Honorable Mention of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters in 2023 for: High Precision Leaf Instance Segmentation in Point Clouds Obtained Under Real Field Conditions

At the largest robotics conference of the community ICRA – IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Dr. Jens Behley has received two Outstanding Reviewer Awards; One award for the ICRA 2022 conference itself and a second one for his services for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).

Science Minister Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen visited the University of Bonn on her NRW research trip. At Campus Klein-Altendorf, she visited the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence, which researches sustainable plant production.