The Collaborative Research Center Transregio (TRR) 228 “Future Rural Africa” has secured four more years of funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is thus entering its third funding period. In this project, researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Cologne study how rural regions in Africa are changing and can be shaped in the future, working closely with local partners to explore key questions about socio-ecological transformations and future-making in rural Africa. 

In May 2025, Benedikt Walker successfully defended his doctoral thesis entitled ‘The German Hydrogen Sector in Global Production Networks: Structures, Agency, and Uneven Development’ at the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Britta Klagge, with Prof. Andrew Cumbers (University of Glasgow) serving as second examiner. Congratulations!

Phillip Garjay Innis has successfully defended his doctoral thesis on Navigating Urban Riskscapes under the supervision of Prof. Detlef Müller-Mahn. Congratulations!

Hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods cause devastating damage around the world. Space-based Earth observation, communication, and navigation systems can provide important assistance in warning of and managing disasters. Global capacity building for such peaceful uses of space technology should continue to advance. To this end, the University of Bonn, the International Peace Alliance (IPA Space) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) have signed a partnership agreement for the next four years.

At the end of June 2025, Arne Rieber successfully defended his dissertation on the political ecology of water infrastructure in Kenya under the supervision of Prof. Detlef Müller-Mahn. Congratulations!

Professor Lisa Schipper is Principal Investigator of the new project “Path Dependency: Unpacking the Colonial Roots of Vulnerability to Climate Change” on colonialism and climate change. Funded through the Cluster of Excellence "Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies" (BCDSS), the project explores how colonial legacies shaped development pathways and continue to amplify vulnerability to climate change in West and North Africa. 

With the support of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a joint consortium of scientific teams and space industry has now launched the “DIEGOSat” satellite feasibility project. Under the leadership of Dr. Johannes Schultz from Ruhr University Bochum, a thermal infrared sensor, originally developed for the International Space Station (ISS), is foreseen to be operated on its own satellite. The satellite sensor will provide thermal imaging data with high temporal resolution, enabling a variety of applications in environmental monitoring, agriculture and disaster control. Researchers from the University of Bonn are involved in the project.  

This year's International Paper Award of the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn goes to Douwe van Schie, research group Development Geography by Prof. Dr. Lisa Schipper, and Dr. Frankline Ndi, Economic Geography from Prof. Dr. Britta Klagge. Congratulations!