Funding Awarded for Priority Programme at the University of Cologne to Investigate the Sustainable and Crisis-Resilient Design of Supply Chains

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding a new Priority Programme at the University of Cologne, led by “Sharing a Planet in Peril” (SAPP) member Prof. Dr. Peter Dannenberg, to investigate the sustainability and resilience of agri-food supply chains in times of crisis.

With 6.3 million euros in funding over three years, the project will run from 2026 – 2029. The programme is coordinated by the university’s Institute of Geography and involves researchers from TU Berlin, RWTH Aachen, and the University of Hohenheim.

Given the growing pressures on global food supply chains due to climate change, geopolitical conflicts, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the project aims to develop a deeper interdisciplinary understanding of how sustainability and resilience interact.

The research will address synergies and conflicts in making supply chains both crisis-resilient and environmentally sustainable.

Further information can be found on the University of Cologne website.

Note: Sharing a Planet in Peril is a flagship project of the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES University of Cologne Hub for Planetary Wellbeing. Bringing together researchers from the University of Cologne’s Global South Studies Center and Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities with a wide network of international partners, SAPP advances actionable knowledge concerning the socio-cultural dimensions of Global Environmental Change from an Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences perspective.