Contact

Urs Niggli
(Prof. Dr. Dr. hc.)
Director
FiBL
Ackerstrasse 113
CH-5070 Frick
Phone +41 (0)62 865-7270
Fax +41 (0)62 865-7273
urs.niggli(at)fibl.org
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Portrait Urs Niggli (789 KB)
Niggli Urs
Activity areas
- Director
- Responsible for quality management
Training / professional career
- Since 1990: Director of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL)
- 1985 - 1989: Head of the weed control group at the Swiss Federal Research Station for Fruit-Growing, Viticulture and Horticulture at Wädenswil/Switzerland
- 1980 - 1983: Grassland weed scientists at the Swiss Federal Research Station for Agronomy (FAL) Zurich-Reckenholz
- 1985: PhD Weed Physiology: Technical University of Zurich (ETH)
- 1979: BSc/MSc Agriculture: Technical University of Zurich (ETH)
Teaching
- Since 2010: Honorary professor, University of Kassel Witzenhausen
- Since 2008: Honorary Departmental Fellow in IBERS (Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University).
- Since 2007: Lectures at Kassel University (Witzenhausen, Germany) as Guest Professor:
- Since 2006: Lecturer at ETH Zurich (Case studies in organic farming)
- 1994 - 2005: Lecturer at ETH Zurich (Introduction in Organic Farming; Case Studies in Organic Farming and Integrated Production).
Current honorary appointments and other duties
- Since 2007: Member of the board of the Institute for Organic Agriculture in Luxemburg IBLA.
- Since 2006: Member of the Advisory Board of the German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL).
- Since 2004: Academic co-ordinator of the EU-Project QualityLowInputFood
with 30 institutes in 13 countries (18 million €, 6th EU-Framework Programme). - Since 2004: Deputy president and co-founder of the Bioinstitute at Olomouc University (Czech Republic).
- Since 2004: Deputy president of FiBL Vienna.
- Since 2003: Member of the Senate Commission on Substances and Resources in Agriculture of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

- Since 2002: Member of the board of directors of the inspection and certification company bio.inspecta inc
. - Since 2001: President of FiBL Germany
- Since 1991: Member of the Advisory Commission of the Crop Science Department of the ETH Zürich.
Past appointments
- 2008–2011: Scientific Board of the German Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute

- 2008–2011: Board of Directors of the International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS)

- 2008–2011: Member of the board of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).January 2006: Expert for the Accreditation of the master course „Organic Food Chain Management“ at Stuttgart-Hohenheim University.
- 2004 - 2008: Member of the Management Boards of the EU-ERAnets CORE ORGANIC, which co-ordinates the scientific co-operation between 11 European countries (www.coreorganic.org
). - 2003 - 2008: Deputy president and co-founder of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR)
. - 2002 - 2006: Deputy president and co-founder of the International Research Association for Organic Food Quality and Health (FQH)
. - 2003 - 2007: Associate editor of the journal “Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems”, CABI-Publishing.
- 2001 - 2005: Member of the board of trustees of the Federal Agricultural Research Centre (FAL) in Braunschweig (Germany).
- 2000: Organiser of the 13th International IFOAM Scientific Conference in Basel, 28 - 31 August.
- 2000: Member of the appointment committee for the director of the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture of the FAL Braunschweig, Germany.
- 1999 - 2005: Trustee of the Research Institute for Vital Quality, Wetzikon/Switzerland
- 1998: Organiser of the First SREN Workshop on Research Methodologies in Organic Farming (FAO) at Frick, 30 September – 3 October.
- 1998: Member of the appointment committee for the chair for organic agriculture at the University of Vienna.
- 1997 - 2001: Member of the Swiss Federal Commission for Bio Safety.
- 1997 - 2000: Member of the scientific committee of ITADA in Colmar, France (trinational research programme on sustainable agriculture in France, Germany, Switzerland, INTERREG-Program).
- 1995 - 2004: Several peer review activities of organic farming research schemes in UK (MAFF, DEFRA) in Denmark (DARCOF: DIAS and KVL), in Austria (University of Vienna) and in Germany (Federal Agricultural Research Centre) .
- 1990 - 1993: Member of the Commission «Nitrate in food» of the Swiss Federal Office for Health.
- 1990: Co-organiser of the first FAO expert consultation on biological agriculture in Europe in Bern, May 1990.
