BOKU is the only Austrian university to comprehensively cover the entire food supply chain from primary production including important upstream chains, processing, logistics, and trade to consumers, minimizing food losses and closing material cycles in research and teaching. Central tasks are the further development of agricultural production in the context of food security in times of increasing demand for raw materials as well as economic, socio-cultural, and ecological challenges such as climate crisis, water and nutrient scarcity, extreme events, soil degradation, and biodiversity loss. Research includes yield formation, stress resilience and protection as well as precision breeding of crops, plant health, breeding, nutrition, husbandry and management of livestock as well as system-oriented organic and conventional agriculture in Europe and the Global South. Central topics also include food authenticity, safety and hygiene as well as food processing, quality and acceptance. Furthermore, the effects of economic and social framework conditions on primary production and the food sector are examined. 

Future research priorities include the transformation of the agricultural and food system, prevention and adaptation strategies in the context of climate change and resource scarcity, sustainability assessment of agricultural systems, the use of information technologies, remote sensing and artificial intelligence in agriculture, the further development of breeding and cultivation methods and animal husbandry systems, alternative protein sources as resource-saving foods, and the development of new processes and technologies for the production of innovative foods and the avoidance of food waste.