The DFG Senate decided today to provide funding of 6.3 million euros over three years to the Priority Programme ‘Sustainability and Resilience of Agri-Food Chains in Times of multiple Crises? Towards a joint and critical understanding’. The programme is coordinated by the University of Cologne’s Institute of Geography and is part of the university’s Key Profile Area Global South Studies. Other researchers from the Technische Universität Berlin, RWTH Aachen University and the University of Hohenheim are also involved in the project.

The Rector of the University, Professor Dr Joybrato Mukherjee, says: 

“I congratulate Professor Dannenberg and his colleagues on their success. The Priority Programme will address an important topic. The sustainability and resilience of food supply chains are issues that are part of the Key Profile Area Global South Studies at the University of Cologne, which streamlines globally networked, interdisciplinary research on topics such as migration, sustainability and infrastructures in Africa, Asia and Latin America.”

Global and regional agricultural and food supply chains are under pressure worldwide, and disruptions can lead to shortages and famine. At the same time, millions of households and commercial enterprises worldwide are dependent on them. On the other hand, the impact of agricultural and food supply chains on the environment is also a key factor in achieving global and national sustainability goals.

The project partners see a need for action to enhance both the resilience and sustainability of agricultural and food supply chains in the context of current multiple and interlinked crises, including climate change, geopolitical polarization, wars and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The implementation of these measures can lead to synergies as well as to conflicts of objectives and implementation between these measures. This is also due to a lack of empirical, conceptual and normative understanding of the links between sustainability and resilience in general and agricultural and food chains in particular,” says Professor Dr Peter Dannenberg from the University of Cologne. 

Only few studies have explored the actual and potential synergies and frictions between sustainability and resilience-oriented actions along the chains, while previous research has focused on either sustainability or resilience. The Priority Programme therefore aims to develop an extended, critical, interdisciplinary and intercultural understanding of both aspects and poses the overarching research question: How can agricultural and food chains be sustainable and resilient in times of multiple crises?

The Priority Programme is coordinated by an interdisciplinary team of experts from the fields of Human Geography (Professor Dr Peter Dannenberg (head), PD Dr Alexander Follmann; both University of Cologne), Sociology (Professor Dr Nina Baur, Technische Universität Berlin), Business Administration (Professor Dr Grit Walther, RWTH Aachen) and Agricultural and Food Policy (Professor Dr Christine Wieck, University of Hohenheim). 
 

Media Contact:
Professor Dr Peter Dannenberg
Institute of Geography at the University of Cologne
+49 221 470 1542
p.dannenberguni-koeln.de

Press and Communications Team:
Robert Hahn
+49 221 470 2396
r.hahnverw.uni-koeln.de

Further information:
https://www.dfg.de/de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2025/pressemitteilung-nr-07