On June 2, 2026 ZEF Junior-Professor Lisa Biber-Freudenberger received the official certificate of appointment from Bonn University's Rector Prof. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch (see photo below). She was accompanied by her husband and son (see the photo at the bottom of the page). Lisa's full professorship in "Biodiversity and Environmental Change" will take effect on July 1, 2026.

What is the best way to shape the future of waterfront cities in the Global South in the face of challenges like climate change? How are conflicts overcome in various different cultures? These key questions are now to be explored by two new Research Training Groups (RTGs) at the University of Bonn. Alongside the University Hospital Bonn as a partner, the proposal was submitted together with the Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS). The German Research Foundation (DFG) is providing with millions of euros in funding to train doctoral students. Across Germany, the DFG will be supporting 10 new RTGs in all from fall 2026 onward. 

Whether it’s malnutrition, diet-related diseases, or negative environmental impacts, our food systems are neither sustainable nor sufficiently resilient. A promising approach to changing this is to diversify food systems. 

Bonn University published a press release on the publication by Juliana Minetto Gellert Paris, Ute Nöthlings, Felix Ankomah Asante & Matin Qaim: The sustainability of diets in sub-Saharan Africa: Synergies and tradeoffs between human health and the environment; Sustainable Production and Consumption (see link below).

Where and how do arbovirus-transmitted diseases emerge, and how are they related to biodiversity loss, climate change, and changes in land use? This is a question that the ArboEmerge research project has been exploring and attempting to answer. ArboEmerge stands for 'Consequences of biodiversity loss and land use change on infectious disease emergence', and comprises a research consortium of ZEF, Charité – Berlin, the Uganda Virus Research Institute and Makerere University. In February 2026, the project organized its final dissemination workshops in the locations where data had been collected. The workshops were attended by high-level representatives of ministries, research facilities and non-governmental organizations. 

Researchers, policymakers, and representatives from agricultural export companies and farmer associations gathered in Entebbe, Uganda on February 25-26 2026, for a workshop on “The True Cost of Food: Policies for Sustainable Production of Coffee and Other Export-Oriented Crops in East Africa.” 

Professor Michael Bohnet was one of the influential pioneers in the establishment of ZEF. As an Executive Director of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) he played a key role in designing the idea for ZEF in the mid-1990s.

Investigating and combining new and existing technologies with Indigenous knowledge systems – that is the aim of ‘iakumama 2050.’ The new research project by the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn (ZEF) pursues the goal of developing scenarios for how humans and nature can live together in regions affected by armed conflicts and raw material extraction. The Volkswagen Foundation is funding the project, which begins in July 2026 and will then be funded for one and a half years.