Weeds are still one of the most important pests in arable farming. Besides negative effects like reducing yield and quality, weeds may affect the function of certain areas. For example, traffic safety on pavements as well as the ecological value of non-cropping areas may be reduced by weeds (e.g. Japanese Knotweed). The management of invasive alien species is of growing importance, but at the same time weeds bring forth a wide range of positive features and effects that also do not fall from our view.

Although there is a long tradition in weed research, climatic, technical or economic changes as well as the political and social perception of this topic evoke a constant need of closing arising knowledge gaps. To find out more about the ecology and biology of weeds is therefore constantly on the agenda of every weed researcher.

We also focus on promoting new strategies for integrated control strategies and on pushing existing strategies to an optimum. This covers all measures trying to minimize the dependency on chemical control or measures directly minimizing the herbicide dosage. In terms of the registration process of pesticides, other investigations are of relevance: possible negative effects on succeeding crops and on minimum effective dosages of herbicides are also in the focus of research activities.