Resilient rice – with their visionary concept, the HHU team led by Dr. Marcel Buchholzer, Prof. Dr. Wolf B. Frommer, Dr. Eliza Loo, Sarah Hatzenbühler, Melissa Stiebner, and Britta Killing won first place in this year's Bio-Gründer Wettbewerb 2025 (Biology Start-up Competition 2025). In addition to the concept, the team submitted a business plan for the next five years and prevailed against six other teams from across Germany at the award ceremony on September 17.
The Healthy Crops project aims to sustainably increase the yields of rice farmers in Africa and Asia. The focus is on developing disease-resistant rice varieties that can be combined with local elite lines, thus making a direct contribution to food security and strengthening regional agriculture. The largely non-profit project aims to help improve the livelihoods and incomes of small-scale producers and farmers around the world.
The Bio-Gründer competition is aimed at innovative start-ups and young entrepreneurs in the fields of agriculture and food, biotechnology, biochemistry, and related disciplines who are trying to solve bioeconomic issues. The Competence Center for Biological Safety has been organizing the competition annually since 2007. The aim is to promote sustainable solutions to challenges such as food and resource security, climate protection, and biodiversity.