BoTiKI project receives funding as part of the "AI lighthouses for the environment, climate, nature and resources" initiative.
On Wednesday, September 24, 2025, the Impact Hub Berlin hosted the ceremonial handover of funding decisions for new projects funded as part of the "AI Lighthouses for Environment, Climate, Nature and Resources" initiative with a focus on natural climate protection. This includes the recently launched project "Open AI system for the description of soil fauna communities to optimize greenhouse gas emission modelling (BoTiKI)". BoTiKI is a joint project of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research and the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG). Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, presented the funding decision to Dr. Clément Schneider from the Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz and Dr.-Ing. André Seeliger from the Institute of Process Technology, Process Automation and Metrology (IPM) at the HSZG.
The BoTiKI project aims to develop an innovative AI system that enables the description of soil fauna communities to optimize greenhouse gas emission modelling. In a first step, the combined application of computer vision and high-throughput DNA sequencing will make the investigation of soil fauna more efficient and cost-effective. Data from comprehensive field studies conducted as part of the project will then help to gain a better understanding of the interactions between soil fauna and greenhouse gas fluxes and ultimately map them in an AI model.
The following day, the annual networking meeting of the BMUKN funding initiatives "AI Lighthouses for the Environment, Climate, Nature and Resources" and "AI Lighthouses for Natural Climate Protection" took place at the same location. At this meeting, experts had the opportunity to discuss current AI applications in the fields of environment, climate, nature and resource protection. The location "Impact Hub" with its co-working spaces provided a suitable backdrop for the exchange and in-depth discussions. BoTiKI was presented in a poster session and met with great interest among the participants.
We would like to thank the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) and Zukunft - Umwelt - Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH for funding the BoTiKI joint project. This support enables us to pursue innovative approaches and gain important insights into soil health and greenhouse gas emissions.
As an open-source and open-data project, BoTiKI will provide a valuable set of tools for diagnostics and forecasting that will ultimately enable large-scale improvement of soil health through appropriate conservation and management measures. We look forward to the future collaboration with Senckenberg Görlitz and the progress we will achieve together.
Interested parties will soon have the opportunity to find out more about the BoTiKI project - including in the form of an interactive exhibit - at the following events:
