ATB reported funding approval for KI-Reallabor Agrar in July 2025. The Volkswagen Foundation committed €18.9 million over five years through the zukunft.niedersachsen initiative. The University of Osnabrück coordinates the consortium, which includes ATB, DFKI, universities, the Thünen Institute and agricultural networks.
ATB contributes expertise in field robotics and data science. Its announcement outlined a new FieldLab Agrar in Lower Saxony and initial application projects intended to bring AI into practical farming. Connecting this infrastructure with ATB’s InnoHof in Brandenburg was planned to enable comparisons between contrasting agricultural regions and support reuse of research data. The programme also links with the Joint Lab AI and Data Science doctoral training activities. The announcement concerns research infrastructure and experimentation, rather than a finished farm-management product.
