The Osnabrück University and the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB) in Potsdam are jointly training doctoral students at the interface of artificial intelligence and data sciences in the application fields agricultural science, engineering, environmental and system sciences in the "Joint Lab Artificial Intelligence & Data Science" research training group. The Volkswagen Foundation is funding the cooperation as part of the "Top Research in Lower Saxony SPRUNG" programme (formerly "Niedersächsisches Vorab") with around 6.7 million euros. The Joint Lab is conducted in close collaboration with the associated partners Agrotech Valley Forum e.V., German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. Lasting added value will be innovative approaches to intelligently network highly diverse bioeconomic production systems and to control them in a knowledge-based, adaptive and (partially) automated control.
The Joint Lab is the latest important success in the long-term collaboration between ATB and the Osnabrück research area as well as the planning of intensifying the combination of core expertise between the Osnabrück University and ATB with continuing perspectives. In order to expand on this, to intensify collaboration, and further strengthen identified synergies, key partners and ministries of Brandenburg and Lower Saxony met on September 1, 2023 at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Osnabrück to exchange concepts.
In addition to the ATB representatives, the talks were attended by Dr H. Müller (Agrotech Valley Forum e.V.), Prof J. Hertzberg (DFKI), Prof B. Lehmann and Prof S. Stiene (Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences), Dr I. Schlotzhauer and Dr S. Germer (Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, MWFK), Dr D. Schnieders and B. Kinnewig (Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, MWK) and Prof S. Menzel-Riedl, Prof T. Römer, Prof. K.- U. Kühnberger (Osnabrück University) and Prof M. Atzmüller (Osnabrück University, DFKI).
Following the diverse and interesting discussions, the participants were given a guided tour of the Coppenrath Innovation Centre (CIC), in which the DFKI is based and the Joint Lab and Agrotech Valley will soon be located.