Current projects
Third party funding:
Plants Under Pressure: Creating the Knowledge and Tools Needed to Predict and Manage Plant Water Stress; funded by Dieter Schwarz Foundation (2026-2028) with 1,000,000 €
Mechanisms underlying the resilience of water transport in angiosperm leaves and roots to drought stress; funded by the DFG (2025-2028) with 237,000 €
DFG Research Unit grant: Multistress subproject 2: “Investigating the physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses of maize to concurrent biotic and abiotic stresses”; Site: Germany; Funding period: 2026-2030; Funding amount: 406,870 € (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/573082914)
DFG research grant: “Role of root mucilage in water and phosphorus uptake in semi-arid environment: Bridging the gap from theories on the pore scale to emergent behaviour at the plant scale (RootMucilage)”; Site: Germany and India; Funding period: 2026-2029; Funding amount: 311,454 €
Bayklif - The Bavarian Network for Climate Research: “Harnessing Root Traits for Climate-Resilient Agriculture: Adaptive Strategies for Water Stress”; Site: Germany; Funding period: 2026-2031; Funding amount: (total: 1.35 M €) Ahmed lab: 296,550 €
- Texture Dependency of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza-induced Plant Drought Tolerance Site: Germany; Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Grant: 221,318 € (2023-2026)
Finished projects:
- Assessing the potential of regenerative agriculture to support soil health and carbon sequestration; Site: USA; Funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Grant: 1,004,522 $ (2022-2025)
- Emerging effects of root hairs on plant scale soil water relations (2nd phase); Site: Germany (As part of priority program SPP2089: Rhizosphere spatiotemporal organisation – a key to rhizosphere function); Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Grant: 452,684 € (2022-2025)
- More crop per drop for sub-Saharan Africa: Key rhizosphere traits to overcome multiple resource limitation; Site: Germany, Kenya, Ethiopia and India. Funded by Robert Bosch Foundation; Grant: 998,992 € (2017-2022)
- Emerging effects of root hairs and mucilage on plant scale soil water relations (1st phase); Site: Germany (As part of priority program SPP2089: Rhizosphere spatiotemporal organisation – a key to rhizosphere function); Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG); Grant: 485,269 € (2018-2022)
- Root hydraulics: towards answering the recent global questions on root functionality and possible use in crop improvement programs; Site: Germany and India (in collaboration with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); Funded by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)