Periods of drought, heavy rainfall and declining soil quality pose major challenges for agriculture. What is needed are solutions that retain water in the landscape for longer, promote healthy soils and work under real-world farm conditions. Agroforestry offers a wide range of possibilities in this regard. In agroforestry systems, trees or shrubs are deliberately combined with arable farming, grazing or livestock production on the same land. This creates ecological and economic benefits, such as better protection of crops against extreme weather events, greater yield stability and reduced fertilizer use.
Nevertheless, agroforestry systems have so far been implemented relatively rarely in practice in Germany. The central challenge is to translate existing knowledge into practical and economically viable solutions – such as management concepts, efficient maintenance and management services, or viable business models for agricultural enterprises.
From Research Knowledge to Viable Applications
The new agroforst innovate! center aims to close this gap. To this end, the Center brings together representatives from academia, agriculture, associations, public administration, business and civil society. The aim is to establish a permanent transfer structure that translates scientific findings into concrete measures.
The centerpiece of the Center will be a landscape laboratory covering around 50 hectares at the Große-Kleimann family farm in Steinfurt. Various agroforestry approaches will be established there within an existing agricultural operation and scientifically monitored over an extended period. The plans include differently designed agroforestry tree and shrub strips on arable and pasture land, also combined with controllable drainage systems and managed wetlands, as well as additional management measures that contribute to building up humus and sequestering carbon in the soil. These activities will be tested as an integrated system that brings together ecological impact, technical feasibility, operational requirements and economic viability.
The experience gained in the landscape laboratory will feed into planning guidelines, educational and advisory services, decision-making tools and transferable business models. This will enable other agricultural enterprises and regions to adopt successful solutions more easily and adapt them to their specific conditions.
Voices on the agroforst innovate! center
“Good ideas only have a societal impact when scientific findings are followed by the courageous step of putting them into practice. With the agroforst innovate! center, we are supporting an approach that combines scientific potential with entrepreneurial thinking and opens up new perspectives for sustainable agriculture. What begins in the Münsterland region should also become applicable to other regions in the future,” says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst, Chair of the Board of the Joachim Herz Stiftung.
“The agroforst innovate! center now offers agriculture a unique opportunity, thanks to the generous funding provided by the Joachim Herz Stiftung, to significantly improve soil, climate and landscape quality while accompanying this process through highly practical scientific research,” emphasizes Prof. Tillmann Buttschardt, head of the Applied Landscape Ecology and Ecological Planning research group at the University of Münster and spokesperson for ZIN.
“I have learned from many farms: knowledge and impact can never be separated. It is now our task – and a unique opportunity – to bring the two together and multiply their effects,” explains Thomas Middelanis, designated Managing Director of the agroforst innovate! center.
Permanent Structures for Knowledge Transfer
The Joachim Herz Stiftung is providing a total of five million euros in funding for the establishment and operation of the agroforst innovate! center through to the end of 2035. The Center will be established as a privately organized, non-profit transfer structure in the legal form of a limited liability company (GmbH). Within this structure, the University of Münster, the Westphalian-Lippe Agricultural Association, the German Association for Agroforestry and the Joachim Herz Stiftung will pool their complementary expertise. This will give the Center the flexibility it needs to implement projects independently and build sustainable, long-term structures for knowledge transfer. The details of the funding and cooperation within the non-profit GmbH are currently being finalized contractually. The agroforst innovate! center is scheduled to begin its work in January 2027.
With its innovate! center funding program, the Joachim Herz Stiftung aims to support the establishment of efficient transfer structures at higher education institutions in order to accelerate the transfer of research findings and establish a good-practice model for improving transfer processes at other universities. The first center was established at the University of Bremen in December 2024. It promotes forward-looking, sustainable materials technologies and their path to market readiness.
About the Partners
Joachim Herz Stiftung is committed to innovation and the transfer of cutting-edge research so that more research findings can be put into practice and generate benefits for society. The foundation strengthens start-up ecosystems and supports a new generation of entrepreneurial talent in developing radical innovation and sustainable business models. By supporting young professionals in a world of work transformed by AI and digitalization, the foundation contributes to modernizing vocational education and training. Its aim is to enable effective solutions to current challenges such as climate protection, greater resource efficiency and securing skilled workers. The foundation’s activities draw on impulses from the United States and strengthen German-American dialogue. The Joachim Herz Stiftung was established in Hamburg in 2008 and is one of Germany’s major foundations.
University of Münster is one of Germany’s large and long-established universities and regards the creation of knowledge and its transfer to society as part of its civic responsibility. This also includes promoting entrepreneurship among students and researchers across all disciplines. In particular, spin-offs are intended to make scientific findings useful to society and the economy. The agroforst innovate! center, which is based in Department 14 – Geosciences, also addresses key questions of sustainable land management. The long-term, climate-resilient transformation of agriculture through agroforestry is a research focus of the Applied Landscape Ecology and Ecological Planning research group. In 2020, the group established agroforst-monitoring, a Germany-wide Citizen Science research network.
Westphalian-Lippe Agricultural Association (WLV) represents the interests of agriculture in Westphalia-Lippe. It advocates for sustainable agriculture and the economic, social and political interests of agricultural enterprises. The association supports its members with professional, legal and operational matters and brings the perspectives of agriculture into politics and society. A particular focus is on developing a productive yet sustainable agricultural sector. With its regional structures and broad network of agricultural enterprises, municipalities, public authorities and other stakeholders, the WLV is an important partner in implementing new approaches at the regional level. As part of the agroforst innovate! center, the association contributes in particular its operational perspective and its experience from agricultural practice.
German Association for Agroforestry (DeFAF) is committed to the development and dissemination of agroforestry in Germany. By networking with academia, agriculture, advisory services, politics and other stakeholders, the association promotes the exchange of knowledge and experience relating to agroforestry systems. It supports research, education and knowledge transfer and advocates for improved framework conditions for the implementation of agroforestry. Its aim is to further develop agroforestry systems as part of sustainable and climate-adapted land use and to establish them more firmly in agricultural practice. As part of the agroforst innovate! center, DeFAF contributes its technical expertise, nationwide network and many years of experience in developing and disseminating agroforestry systems.
