Julius Kühn-Institut – Bundesforschungsinstitut für Kulturpflanzen (JKI) is the German Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants. It is a federal research institute and a higher federal authority divided into 15 specialized institutes. Its objectives, mission and research scope were determined by section 11, paragraph 57 of the 1987 Federal Law on the Protection of Cultivated Plants as subsequently amended. The JKI was named after the German agricultural scientist Julius Kühn (1825–1910). It was formed in January 2008 when three research centres in the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture merged: It has its main office at Quedlinburg and centres at Berlin, Braunschweig, Darmstadt, Dossenheim, Dresden-Pillnitz, Elsdorf, Groß Lüsewitz, Kleinmachnow, Münster and Siebeldingen.

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Notable people

The facility is headed by breeding researcher Frank Ordon. He succeeded the horticultural and phytomedical scientist Georg F. Backhaus, who had previously been head of the Federal Biological Institute in Berlin and Braunschweig since 2002.