Germany's federal research institute for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries — strong in agroecology, soil science, livestock welfare, and agricultural policy modeling.
The Thünen Institute is Germany's federal research institute for rural areas, forestry, and fisheries, delivering policy-relevant science on agriculture, forest management, marine resources, and rural economies. Their work spans the full chain from soil biology and livestock systems to trade policy modeling and environmental impact assessment. They provide the scientific evidence base that shapes German and EU agricultural, environmental, and fisheries policy. In H2020, they contribute deep expertise in agro-ecological farming systems, legume-based agriculture, livestock welfare, forest inventory methods, and bioeconomy monitoring.
Core contributor across UNISECO (coordinator), SoildiverAgro, CONSOLE, DiverIMPACTS, RELACS, Nutri2Cycle, and EJP SOIL — covering soil health, crop diversification, organic farming, and agri-environmental contracts.
Coordinated Legumes Translated and contributed to DiverIMPACTS, focusing on soybean, faba bean, pea integration into European farming and feed systems.
Major role in PPILOW (EUR 1.1M, their largest single grant) on pig and poultry welfare in low-input systems, plus livestock components in RELACS and Legumes Translated.
Consistent presence across AquaSpace, SUCCESS, CERES, PANDORA, GAIN, and TRIATLAS — covering fisheries policy, aquaculture intensification, and marine ecosystem services.
Active in DIABOLO (forest inventories), GenTree (forest genetic resources), HoliSoils (forest soils), ASFORCLIC (climate adaptation in forestry), and BioMonitor (bioeconomy metrics).
Growing involvement in MIND STEP (agent-based modeling for EU agricultural policy), SUPREMA (policy-relevant modeling), SHERPA (rural policy), and CONSOLE (agri-environmental contracts).
In the early period (2015–2018), Thünen's H2020 work was broad and resource-oriented: fisheries policy, aquaculture spatial planning, forest inventories, and general monitoring tools — reflected in keywords like GIS, decision support, surveys, and multi-criterion analysis. From 2019 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward agroecology, climate-smart agriculture, and ecosystem services, with strong emphasis on multi-actor approaches, environmental policy, and soil management. The recent portfolio shows a research institute that moved from mapping and monitoring natural resources toward actively designing sustainable farming and land-use systems.
Thünen is consolidating around soil health, agroecological transitions, and agricultural policy modeling — expect them to be a go-to partner for EU Green Deal and Farm-to-Fork related calls.
Thünen operates overwhelmingly as a contributing partner (29 of 32 projects), bringing domain expertise into large consortia rather than leading them. With 487 unique partners across 53 countries, they function as a high-connectivity hub in European agricultural research — the kind of organization that knows everyone in the field. Their three coordinator roles (SEACRIFOG, UNISECO, Legumes Translated) were mid-sized coordination actions, suggesting they take the lead when the topic sits squarely in their mandate but prefer to contribute specialist knowledge in larger initiatives.
With 487 unique consortium partners across 53 countries, Thünen maintains one of the broadest collaboration networks in European agricultural research, spanning EU member states, African nations (via SEACRIFOG), and Atlantic-region partners (via TRIATLAS).
As a federal research institute with mandates across agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, Thünen offers a rare combination: they can assess a land-use question from the soil microbiome up to trade policy impacts, all under one roof. Their government mandate means they bring direct policy relevance — research findings feed into German federal policy, giving consortium partners a channel to real regulatory influence. For consortium builders, partnering with Thünen signals scientific credibility and policy impact to evaluators.
