Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Ulrich is a professor at Coventry University in England, part of United Kingdom. He is a co-founder of the university’s research centres on agroecology (CAFS, CAWR) based at Ryton Organic Gardens, a 10 ha certified organic horticultural farm, which Coventry University bought in 2019. Ulrich is an agricultural and horticultural scientist and economist and has 35 years experience in organic horticulture, food and farming research.
Ulrich has been working in multi-actor EU projects since framework-5, being task-, workpackage-leader, and coordinator in Horizon. His research is transdisciplinary combining social and natural science with practical knowledge and co-designed with innovative ecological food and farming businesses of any size and complexity (e.g. community supported agriculture). In his academic work Ulrich has specialised in organic/agroecological horticulture and agriculture and ecological economics. Urban agroecology, agroforestry, vegan organic, bio-dynamic, social farming, and the environmental, social and governance issues of just food systems from the bottom-up are of interest. In addition, Ulrich has long expertise in modelling farm, environmental and policy/economics data sets. Example projects are: EU-Rotate-N, FOODMETRES, BioGreenhouse, Waste Few-ULL, Organic-PLUS, Peat-phaseout research, AGROMIX, UNDERTREES, Agroecology for Europe (AE4EU), FOOdIVERS, Procurement for Good, SCALE-IT.
Prior to the establishment of the agroecology research centres at Ryton, Ulrich has worked as a Senior Horticultural Economist for Garden Organic (working name of the Henry Doubleday Reserach Association - HDRA) at Ryton Organic Gardens, and as visiting Professor of Organic Agriculture at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in South-Tyrol, Italy. His PhD was in an international research project with Israel and Philippines on tree-physiology and salinity in mango rootstocks at Humboldt University Berlin. Non-academic professional work is as organic farm inspector and ecological farm business consultant during the transition in Eastern Europe after 1989. Ulrich holds an agricultural engineering and economics Diploma (MSc) and a BSc in Philosophy from Bonn and Munich universities (TU, LMU) in West-Germany. His family farm is in Bavaria, near Ingolstadt on the Danube, halfway on the Roman road from 'Old' York to Istanbul.
Research Interests
Organic horticulture; Agroecology; Ecological economics; Urban agroecology including health and wellbeing of gardening; Governance, sustainability and standards of ecological food and farming systems; Social and ecological return on investment; organic agriculture, vegan organic, greenhouse crops, fruit trees, agroforestry, silvopasture and silvohorticulture
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Keywords
- S Agriculture (General)
- Agroecology
- Agroforestry
- Organic horticulture
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship Management
- GE Environmental Sciences
- Agroecological Management
- G Geography (General)
- Human geography
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship Management
- Higher education studies
- HC Economic History and Conditions
- Management
- Organic agriculture
- Business growth strategy
- Economics of Higher Education
- JA Political science (General)
- Political Agroecology
- Political Ecology
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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UNDERTREES: Creating knowledge for Understanding ecosystem services of agroforestry systems through a holistic methodological framework
Binego, L. (Principal Investigator), Rayns, F. (Principal Investigator), Burbi, S. (Researcher), Dehnen-Schmutz, K. (Researcher), Schmutz, U. (Researcher) & Van De Wiel, M. (Researcher)
1/01/22 → 31/12/25
Project: Research
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Design and Evaluation of Peat-Free Blocking Media
Lennartsson Turner, M. (Principal Investigator), Rayns, F. (Principal Investigator), Schmutz, U. (Principal Investigator), Conroy, J. (Research Assistant), Faedo, L. (Research Assistant) & Foster, G. (Research Assistant)
1/04/23 → 31/03/25
Project: Research
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FOOdIVERSE: Diversifying sustainable and organic food systems
Evans, A. (Principal Investigator), Kneafsey, M. (Co-Investigator), Schmutz, U. (Co-Investigator) & van Kesteren, R. (Researcher)
1/01/21 → 30/06/24
Project: Research
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Agroecology for Europe (AE4EU)
Schmutz, U. (Principal Investigator), Conroy, J. (Co-Investigator), Hilmi, A. (Co-Investigator), Moeller, N. (Co-Investigator), Pimbert, M. (Co-Investigator), Bandakova, T. (Researcher), Binder, L. (Researcher), Burbi, S. (Researcher) & Dinc, S. (Researcher)
1/01/21 → 31/12/23
Project: Research
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AGROMIX: AGROforestry and MIXed farming systems - Participatory research to drive the transition to a resilient and efficient land use in Europe
Schmutz, U. (Principal Investigator), Dehnen-Schmutz, K. (Co-Investigator), Eden, J. (Co-Investigator), Rayns, F. (Co-Investigator), Van De Wiel, M. (Co-Investigator), Wright, J. (Co-Investigator), Conroy, J. (Research Assistant), Venn, R. (Research Assistant), Burbi, S. (Researcher) & Touliatos, D. (Researcher)
1/11/20 → 31/10/24
Project: Research
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Agroecological Living Labs as entry points for transition towards sustainable food systems: a novel framework for the evaluation of living labs at different scales
Rastorgueva, N., Bassignana, C. F., Angarita, E., Fasso, A., Hassink, J., Goris, M., Schmutz, U., Conroy, J., Dinç, S., Wezel, A. & Migliorini, P., 17 Mar 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. (In-Press), p. (In-Press) 34 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Downloads (Pure) -
Handbook of collaborative design to solve sticky problems in agriculture
Dawson, A., Reubens, B., Jaeger, M., Burgess, P., Graves, A., Wright, J. & Schmutz, U., 15 Jan 2025, Wageningen Research. 45 p.Research output: Book/Report › Other report › peer-review
Open AccessFile21 Downloads (Pure) -
Balancing people, planet, and profit in urban food waste management
Parsa, A., Van De Wiel, M., Schmutz, U., Taylor, I. & Fried, J., 1 Mar 2024, In: Sustainable Production and Consumption. 45, p. 203-215 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Citations (Scopus)66 Downloads (Pure) -
Small woody features in agricultural areas: Agroforestry systems of overlooked significance in Europe
Rubio-Delgado, J., Schnabel, S., Lavado-Contador, J. F. & Schmutz, U., Jun 2024, In: Agricultural Systems. 218, 16 p., 103973.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile6 Citations (Scopus)67 Downloads (Pure) -
Challenging the food waste hierarchy
Parsa, A. A., Van De Wiel, M., Schmutz, U., Fried, J., Black, D. & Roderick, I., 15 Oct 2023, In: Journal of Environmental Management. 344, 13 p., 118554.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile24 Citations (Scopus)172 Downloads (Pure)
Activities
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Danish Organic Research, Development and Demonstration program (Organic RDD 6) faciliatated by the ‘International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems' (ICROFS). (Event)
Schmutz, U. (Associate Editor)
1 May 2020 → 1 Aug 2020Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work › Publication peer-review
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Sustainability (Journal)
Burbi, S. (Guest Editor), Schmutz, U. (Guest Editor) & Kneafsey, M. (Guest Editor)
1 Jan 2019 → 31 Dec 2020Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work › Editorial activity
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Organic-PLUS: Agroecology and the development of organic food systems all across Europe. V International Conference on organic farming in Belarus Organic and Sustainable Agriculture: Meeting the Global Challenges 22 February 2018 – Minsk, Belarus
Schmutz, U. (Speaker)
22 Feb 2018Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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Mainstreaming Agroecology – What does it mean for Horticulture and Horticultural Science? 30th International Horticulture Congress. 12-16 Aug 2018. Istanbul, TurkeyWorkshop on Agroecology and Horticulture
Schmutz, U. (Speaker)
12 Aug 2018Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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Certification standards for urban farming
Schmutz, U. (Speaker) & Lennartsson Turner, M. (Speaker)
30 Sept 2017Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk