Hochschule Geisenheim University has been awarded its first LOEWE start professorship. It goes to Prof. Dr. Kai Peter Voss-Fels, Professorship for Grapevine Breeding, who will extend the scope of breeding activities to other special crops by introducing new techniques. The LOEWE research funding program of the state of Hessen is providing almost 2 million euros over a period of six years to be used for equipment and staff.
“Prof. Dr. Voss-Fels is working on one of today’s top issues. Modern breeding techniques are helping to select and breed varieties and clones of grapes, fruits, vegetables and other special crops that are more climate-resilient and can be grown using environmentally sustainable techniques, which fits perfectly with the university’s culture of sustainability”, says Science Minister Angela Dorn. “Preserving genetic diversity, for example of traditional grape varieties, is also an important task. I am very pleased that Hochschule Geisenheim University has appointed Prof. Dr. Voss-Fels to Geisenheim, and is able to offer excellence working conditions thanks to funds provided by the LOEWE program, which shows that LOEWE professorships help to give a boost to Hesse’s research landscape.”
“This is a great honor for us and a huge recognition for Prof. Dr. Voss-Fels,” says University President Prof. Dr. Hans R. Schultz, “and this decision will have a lasting positive impact on the development of the related industries.”
“With the challenges facing the agricultural sector due to climate change, breeding new enhanced varieties of special crops is of key importance. Thanks to the strong support of Hochschule Geisenheim University and the LOEWE research funding program, we are now able to establish new breeding techniques in Geisenheim. Not only does this offer the potential to improve grapevines through breeding much faster and more efficiently than has been possible with the traditional methods used in the Department of Grapevine Breeding. By establishing additional new research infrastructure, we now have the opportunity to extend our breeding research to other important species, e.g. of fruit and vegetables”, explains Prof. Dr. Voss-Fels.
Prof. Dr. Kai Peter Voss-Fels completed his PhD at Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen in 2016. In the following years, he worked at the University of Queensland, Australia – one of the world’s leading research institutes for breeding research – where he was appointed Honorary Associate Professor in 2021. Prof. Dr. Voss-Fels leads the “Quantitative Genetics“ project in the new International Research Training Group “Accelerating Crop Genetic Gain”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The research group is a cooperation between the University of Queensland, Hochschule Geisenheim University and Julius Kühn Institute in Quedlinburg, Germany, spearheaded by Justus Liebig Universität in Gießen. With climate change, a growing world population and shrinking arable land, the goal is to find ways to increase crop productivity without harming the environment.
LOEWE Start Professorships are intended to appoint excellent early-career scientists to Hessen or keep them in Hessen for a period of six years with funding of up to two million euros.
More information on the LOEWE funding program: https://wissenschaft.hessen.de/forschen/landesprogramm-loewe
More information on grapevine breeding in Geisenheim: https://www.hs-geisenheim.de/en/research/departments/grapevine-breeding/department-of-grapevine-breeding/
