RUN – Rural Urban Nutrient Partnership

Goal and task

By closing regional nutrient and resource cycles, RUN contributes to the sustainability and resilience of agricultural systems in connection with urban structures. An essential element of the project are regional nutrient partnerships between urban residents and farmers. Through them, the nutrient cycle in society is to be closed sustainably and in the long term and anchored in a practical way. The structure of the project resembles a real laboratory: A pilot plant and an information and experience room are to be set up at the Heidelberg site. There, new technologies can be tested directly under real-time conditions and with the participation of stakeholders. RUN combines research into innovative technologies, analysis of material flow models, systemic scenario analysis and socio-scientific participatory methods in order to develop sustainable solutions.

As part of RUN, CSI is investigating mentalities about hygiene and health and the consequences of social embeddedness of new NASS technologies. It is also collecting data on consumer acceptance of agricultural products produced using novel fertilizers from wastewater.

RUN-Film Nr.1

After the third year of the project, the construction of a pilot plant for approx. 100 to 200 inhabitants is planned as a demonstrator for an urban subdistrict in Heidelberg. Heidelberg's geographic location in the Rhine-Neckar triangle is highly relevant, as a wide variety of structural landscape conditions come together here in the development of regional closed-loop solutions. These are already taken into account in the development of the concept, so that the solutions developed can be transferred to a wide range of other regions with very different regional structures. Thus, RUN can become a lighthouse project.

The Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Waste Management at the University of Stuttgart (ISWA) is coordinating the research project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The first phase will run for three years, with an extension planned. RUN is one of eight projects of the research project "Agricultural Systems of the Future" within the framework of the "National Research Strategy BioEconomy 2030".