Research Funding

The EU SOIL MISSION Work Programme 2024, published on 17 April 2024, includes two further calls for proposals funding the creation and establishment of Living Labs: Co-creating solutions for soil health in Living Labs and Living Labs in urban areas for healthy soils. The calls for proposals will be open for submission between 8 May and 8 October 2024

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The EU SOIL MISSION just released New Guidelines for Soil Living Labs proposals

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Academic Papers

The International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy 2022 was just released, providing up-to-date information on soil governance at the national and international levels

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Does a deeper understanding of soil science principles directly translate to increased care for the soil? This paper, based on a survey in Spain, suggests not - instead, practical experience of soil work increases soil care attitudes

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This European Joint Programme for SOIL EJP SOIL study provides a comprehensive overview of 53 soil management practices to assess their current levels of adoption, sociotechnical barries influencing their adoption and their biophysical limits

 

The project SOLO has released a series of preliminary assessments of knowledge gaps in the areas of soil literacy, conservation of soil biodiversity, reduction of soil sealing, and others

 

Soil extractivism is deeply ingrained in modern agricultural and other land use policies, argues this article; addressing soil degradation requires a change in how soils are valued and understood

Highly publicized study of land degradation pathways in Europe proposed a Land Multi-degradation Index modelling that  27%, 35% and 22% of continental agricultural (~2 million km2) and arable (~1.1 million km2) lands are currently threatened by one, two, and three drivers of degradation, while 10–11% of pan-European agricultural/arable landscapes are cumulatively affected by four and at least five concurrent processes

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Soil Art, Entertainment, and Outreach

Dr. Jake Robinson (Flinders University, Australia) shares ecoacoustics. In this research, Dr. Robinson uses microphones to detect the sounds that soils make. These sounds are then used to make inferences about the abundance and diversity of soil communities. Dr. Robinson uses these sounds (ecoacoustics) to track the effectiveness of soil restoration interventions

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UK public invited to dance for worms to help assess soil health. The Soil Association is trying to get a nationwide picture of worm abundance, to track their decline and see where they need the most help. Across May, the charity is asking people to dance on the soil, soak the earth with water or use the vibrations of a garden fork to draw worms up

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Soil Policy

Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board developed an open access framework to monitor soil health in England, Wales and Scotland, the Soil Health Scorecard

A Land Use for Net Zero (LUNZ) hub gathering 34 partner organisation was launched in November 2023 for 40 months to provide UK administrations with knowledge to develop policies to achieve Net Zero by 2050

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Soil Events

Consider attending the participatory workshop to map the mechanisms and activities involved in Decolonising Soil Science in the context of the Caribbean and globally at the University of Greenwich on 3rd July  - UK travel will be refunded. Register here: Workshop: Decolonising Soil Research and Agricultural Policies in Global South 

 

Last month Florence hosted the Centennial of the International Union of Soil Sciences with an impressive amount of 38 sessions (140+ presentations) by social sciences, humanities and art. You’ll find abstracts here!

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Free British Society of Soil Science webinar ‘Zoom into Soil: Soils and Water’ 03 July 2024

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM BST

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Groundswell: The Regenerative Agriculture Festival is on again in Hertfordshire, UK on 26th & 27th June