The EIP-AGRI brokerage event ’Get involved in the EU Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe’ will take place on 8-9 June 2022 in Brussels, Belgium. The event will be by invitation only. An open call for expression of interest is open until 22 April, 23:59 CET.
This event will offer matchmaking sessions through face-to-face meetings and networking amongst farmers, advisors, researchers, and other relevant stakeholders to support the preparation of proposals for the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ call that will be launched in May. Additionally, the activity will create conditions for exchanging knowledge and innovative ideas and practices (living labs and lighthouses), that may inspire potential applicants to take part in the next EU Mission call.
All information and updates will be posted on the EIP-AGRI website HERE.
The eleventh GRA Council meeting was held online over three days, 21-23 February 2022, hosted by Chile.
The meeting was attended by 137 representatives from 39 countries and 11 partner organisations. Australia has now officially passed the Council Chair role to Chile, with Spain accepting the Vice-Chair role.
The meeting included reports on the past year’s achievements from the GRA Special Representative, Research Groups and Working Groups (Innovation and Research Stocktake). Six proposals for new global Flagship Projects were presented for approval. Two new GRA Partner organisations presented to the Council. The meeting also involved a workshop related to mitigation for small holders and a review of the current GRA Operational Plan.
Key outcomes of the meeting include:
- Five new global Flagship Projects were approved during the meeting, with the sixth project proposal gaining approval shortly after.
- The two Working Groups established in 2021 will continue in 2022.
- GRA to become a ‘Supporter’ of the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) and to invite Environmental Defence Fund to be an official GRA Partner.
- New Zealand will continue to host the GRA Special Representative and Secretariat, with additional support from members and no changes to the TOR for these roles.
The meeting report and recordings of the online sessions are now available to view by clicking HERE.
EJP SOIL have announced that the following three calls will be opening in April 2022.
EJP SOIL Second External Call – EJP SOIL International Call
This call will open in April 2022 with a closing date for proposals in September 2022. The objective of this call is to foster farm management practices, which contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. To achieve this aim, proposals submitted to this Call must address one of the following three topics:
Topic a: Soil restoration practices and managements for alleviating land degradation and supporting the agro-ecosystem functioning.
Topic b: Options to manage C, N and P cycling in the context of changing environmental conditions using data derived from benchmark farms.
Topic c: Developing innovative methods and sensing technologies to provide an integrated monitoring and mapping of farm management practices taking also into account physical attributes and vegetation characteristics relevant to SOC sequestration, soil health and degradation.
More information HERE.
The visiting scientist support scheme offers the opportunity for researchers to gain access to the EJP SOIL infrastructure in order to carry out research visits in facilities of the EJP SOIL partners as well as in leading non-EJP SOIL institutions. EJP SOIL considers mobility between organizations to be an asset for the personal and career development of researchers. Such mobility strengthens inter-institutional collaboration and promotes the acquisition of new skills and knowledge, thereby contributing to increased research creativity, efficacy and performance. The scheme targets junior (postdoc), mid- & senior level career scientists, technical and laboratory experts.
More information HERE.
The overall objective of this 3rd internal call is to fund research projects open to EJP SOIL beneficiaries and linked third parties to fill research and development gaps identified by the “Roadmap for the European Joint Program SOIL” and the annual work program of the EJP SOIL for year three.
More information HERE.
The March 2022 Issue of Who’s Counting, the Inventories and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Network Newsletter is now available to view HERE.
In Who’s Counting this quarter…
The I&NDC Network welcomes two new co-leads; two databases of emission factors and parameters for manure CH4 and soil N2O are publicly available and continually seeking data contributions; New Zealand scientists communicate new findings from research on mapping and managing N2O emissions from urine patches; and the I&NDC Network held the first successful meeting of National Agriculture Inventory Compilers in January. More 2022 Network events and activities to be announced, please subscribe below to stay notified!
We encourage you to directly submit content for the next Issue of Who’s Counting, or contact one of the Inventories and NDC Network co-leads directly. To receive future issues of this Newsletter subscribe here.
The European Commission is looking for the best innovative ideas to advance the protection and restoration of soils in Europe and beyond. The deadline to apply is 24 March 2022.
The European Commission is looking for the best innovative ideas to advance the protection and restoration of soil health in Europe. The total available budget is € 62 million.
Learn more HERE.
NZAGRC, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research (MWLR), Pastoral Robotics Limited and AgResearch in New Zealand are exploring targeted management of urine patches deposited directly onto pasture by grazing animals, which is the primary source of direct N2O and indirect N2O emissions in these systems (from deposition of volatilised ammonia and leached nitrate).
This work is important to determine cost savings from potentially applying significantly less inhibitor technologies to targeted areas, as opposed to applying the treatment over large unaffected areas. Critical factors to estimate emissions from urine patches were also determined. Findings supported existing scientific knowledge in this field that simulated urine patches (often uniformly wetted) do not correctly emulate natural dispersion of urine patches and thus provided new insights for better emission estimation from N2O emissions from grazing animals.
The 2022 meeting of the Croplands Research Group was held on 19 January 2022.
The meeting was attended by 36 participants, representing 15 GRA member countries, and invited experts. The meeting report and recordings of the online sessions are now available for download HERE.
On 17 January 2022, the Inventories and Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) Network hosted a virtual meeting of National Agriculture Sector Inventory Compilers. Thirty-five countries were represented by their national agriculture inventory compiler, spanning Africa, Europe, LAC and Asia, North America and Oceania.
The objectives of the meeting were to facilitate networking and information exchange, to discuss common issues faced in agriculture inventory compilation and to determine how the Network may best assist participants with these and inventory improvements.
Read more about the meeting outcomes and download the meeting report by clicking HERE.
Location: Müncheberg, Germany
Closing Date: 6 March 2022
Learn more here:
A recording of the February 2022 Manure Management Network Webinar, titled “Development of bio-based fertilisers for a circular bioeconomy”, is now available to view.
This webinar session included presentations from:
Patrick Forrestal (Teagasc, Ireland): “Opportunities and challenges of meeting crop and soil nutrient requirements using bio-based fertilisers”
Laia Llenas Argelaguet (UVIC-UCC, Spain): “From farm to market: Upcycling manure to improved fertilising products”
Lars Stoumann Jensen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark): “Developing new bio‐based fertilisers from organic waste upcycling for optimal use in agriculture – and training a new generation of scientists for the challenge! Insights from the LEX4BIO and FertiCycle EU projects.”
Being a successful scholar today requires scientists to deliver their insights beyond the academic community and show that their research has real-world value. But how can scientists better communicate their research, data and analysis? We ask this question in the first part of the 2022 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration series and seek answers together with science communications experts.
The online event series kicked off with speaker Jonathan Schwabish, an economist and science communications expert at the Urban Institute, who shared his insights about the fundamentals of an effective science communication strategy. The topics he covered included content hierarchy, strategic planning, and audience analysis. He recently published the book “Elevate the debate: A multi-layered approach to communicating your research”, which served as the basis for discussions at the first session of our event series. This blog provides an overview of the main points from the event.
The September/October 2021 edition of the Soil Science Society of America Journal (SSSAJ) features a special section titled “The Role of Conservation Agricultural Practices on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Enhancing C Sequestration“.
The section brings together studies from across the globe and was edited by Craig Drury (Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Ontario Canada), Chuck Rice (Kansas State University, Kansas USA) and Jane Johnson (United States Department of Agriculture, Minnesota, USA). The editors had the idea for a SSSAJ special section in 2019 at the Global Research Alliance’s (GRA) meeting of the Croplands Research Group and implementation has been led by the Conservation Agriculture Network.
Ten peer-reviewed papers are published in the special section. They include seven field studies, two modeling studies (using field data), and one meta-analysis paper. The conservation agriculture (CA) practices covered in these manuscripts include conservation tillage, crop rotations, cover crops, and residue management. Several studies include a combination of CA practices (e.g., two papers included both tillage and residue management treatments). The research represents field sites in four countries (United States, Canada, Argentina, and Denmark) across three continents (North and South America and Europe). The meta-analysis study uses published data from 121 field sites in 19 countries across six continents. Collectively, these articles provide examples of CA benefits related to reducing N2O emissions and enhancing C sequestration in soils.