JIA Annual Conference 2025

food4future auf der Jahrestagung „Junior-Ingenieur-Akademie“ in Erfurt

26.05.2025

Foto: JIA Annual Conference 2025, B. Regierer / IGZ

On May 23, 2025, food4future was part of the annual conference of the Junior Engineer Academy (JIA) of the Deutsche Telekom Foundation at the ZENTRALHEIZE in Erfurt. The event is the nationwide networking meeting of the program, which has been promoting STEM education at lower secondary schools across Germany for two decades.

Under the guiding theme of “The future of nutrition”, this year's conference combined current technological and social issues - and offered a variety of impulses for innovative educational approaches.

The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space funding program Agricultural Systems of the Future presented current research approaches and transfer ideas in a joint keynote speech followed by an expert talk. The speakers involved were:

Prof. Dr. Monika Schreiner (food4future, IGZ)
Prof. Dr. Johannes Isselstein (GreenGrass, University of Göttingen)
Prof. Dr. Thomas Weith (ILS - Institute for Regional and Urban Development Research)

The contributions impressively demonstrated how education, technological innovation and social challenges can be considered together - in a practical, future-oriented way and with a view to the next generation.

The accompanying interactive exhibits such as a cattle collar prototype (GreenGrass) and the UVB light sword (food4future / agricultural systems of the future) enabled participants to experience future technologies directly - and at the same time offered inspiring starting points for interdisciplinary teaching concepts.

The JIA annual conference was a successful example of building bridges between research, schools and society. Prof. Dr. Thomas Weith emphasized: “We need to work together with teachers in particular in order to encourage young people to be more open to innovations in nutrition and agriculture.” And Prof. Dr. Monika Schreiner added: “The step towards something new is often not far - young people in particular just have to recognize the possibilities.”