Periodic Reporting for period 4 - EJP SOIL (Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils)
Reporting period: 2023-02-01 to 2024-01-31
The overall goal of the EJP SOIL is to build a sustainable European integrated research system on agricultural soils and to develop and deploy a reference framework on climate-smart sustainable agricultural soil management. This will create the enabling environment maximising the contribution of agricultural soil to addressing key societal challenges such as food and water security, sustainable agricultural production, climate change adaptation and mitigation, ecosystem services delivery and biodiversity preservation. On the operational level this will be achieved by strengthening the European research community on agricultural soil management through an alignment and implementation of research, training and capacity building, and promotion of the harmonized agricultural soil information systems to achieve global consistency and applicability of agricultural soil information. On the policy level, the programme will support the adoption of evidence-based recommendations for policy makers on agricultural soil health and adequate agricultural practices through a multi-actor approach and intersociety dialogue, as well as uptake of climate-smart sustainable agricultural soil management practices by practitioners. While on the scientific level, the programme will co-design and implement a 5-year roadmap for agricultural soil research by developing new insights on climate-smart agricultural soil management and carbon sequestration in agricultural soils under different conditions across Europe.
The work performed so far includes the instalment and maintenance of the programme governance, advisory bodies and management structures. A Europe wide stocktakes were carried out on soil quality indicators and associated decision tools; achievable soil carbon sequestration on agricultural land in the EU; use of models for accounting and policy support; and harmonizing methodologies for fertilization guidelines. A series of reports on the impact of sustainable soil management practices in EU; regional, national and EU aspirations on soil services and soil functions; state of knowledge in agricultural soil management; current availability and use of soil knowledge; knowledge and use of citizen science across Europe; impact of policies on agricultural land abandonment has been also developed. A roadmap for soil research in Europe was developed, consulted with national stakeholders and updated based on synthesis of existing research, research needs and gaps to serve as an agenda and implementation plan for the programme and beyond, in close collaboration with SOLO, PREPSOIL, ORCASA and FACCE-JPI initiatives. First, second and third internal calls for internal research project proposals were launched in April 2020, April 2021 and April 2022 respectively, with 26 project proposals selected for funding as the results. Approved 1st internal call projects started in February 2021, 2nd and 3rd internal call projects stared in November 2021 and November 2022. Their research is being finalised and key research results are being gradually uploaded to the EJP SOIL website, used in the EJP SOIL programmes WP activities and beyond. The first and second external calls for research project proposals was launched in April 2021 and in April 2022, concluded in September 2021 and September 2022, with 19 proposals total selected for funding. As part of education and training activities, the programme has finalized and shared the synthesis on current state of European soil science in higher education and foresight study for soil science professional needs. Programme also finalised the development of a joint curriculum for the PhD training as well as actual organisation of the topic specific PhD courses. Several calls for visiting scientists programme were launched in 2021, 2022 and 2023. To facilitate soil knowledge harmonization, organization and storage, an analysis of national soil data ownership regulations in all partner countries was undertaken, to develop a policy that both respects the legal rights of national data holders and supports soil data sharing in Europe. The reports on harmonized procedures for creation of soil databases and maps, on the national and EU regulations on agricultural soil data sharing and national monitoring activities and proposal of methodological development for the LUCAS programme in accordance with national monitoring programmes were finalised based on JRC’s feedback. Software framework for a shared agricultural soil information system and guidelines for accounting and mapping agricultural soil carbon, fertility and degradation changes at different scales have been also developed. Knowledge availability and knowledge needs identified during the four years of the EJP SOIL were synthesized and used in annual EJP SOIL roadmap updates. A database structure has been developed for compiling information on Long-term experimental sites (LTEs) and the Network of LTEs and soil laboratories has been established and subsequently transferred to BONARES website for further development after the EJP SOIL end. Several calls for access to infrastructure were launched in 2021, 2022 and 2023. A set of EJP SOIL articles have been published in the special issue on Climate smart sustainable soil management for the future of the European Journal of Soil Science. The EJP SOIL also continued facilitating dialogue between the EJP SOIL and relevant EU policy-makers on soil research and agricultural soil management by mapping the key policy stakeholders at national and EU levels across EJP SOIL countries, by synthesizing findings from EU Policy Forums and National policy workshops and identifying and establishing further collaboration with relevant soil initiatives. Communication, interaction and knowledge sharing with stakeholders across the EU and within the EJP SOIL consortium has taken place mostly through physical and digital engagement. The increased number of outputs and results from the EJP SOIL programme activities and from internal research project have been mediated through various CDE activities such as physical and online workshops, meetings, webinars, conferences, news articles, videos and social media activities. The EJP SOIL communication and dissemination strategy and plan were further revised and reflected upon in the annual CDE reports.
At the societal level, the EJP SOIL is striving to rise general public awareness and foster improved societal understanding of agricultural soil management and its contribution to sustainable agricultural production, climate change adaptation, mitigation, and all other ecosystem services delivery by soils.