Call closing date for proposals: 14 September 2022
Managing and mapping agricultural soils for enhancing soil functions and services.
The European Joint Programme “EJP SOIL – Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils” comprises 24 countries committed to the overall goal of providing sustainable agricultural soil management solutions that contribute to key societal challenges including climate change and future food supply.
The overall objective of this call is to foster farm management practices, which contribute to climate change mitigation and adaption. To achieve this aim, three main directions shall be taken into consideration and are subject to this call: A) Soil restoration practices and management, B) Managing soils in the context of climate change and C) Research and development of innovative methods and sensing technologies to provide an integrated monitoring and mapping of farm management practices.
Click HERE for further information.
We are pleased to welcome Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as the newest formal Partner of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases!
EDF has significant experience working with farmers, policymakers, and companies to advance and scale climate-smart agriculture in the U.S., China, India, and the EU. This includes working closely with industry-leading agricultural and food companies to develop innovative solutions, scale climate-smart practices, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across supply chains.
EDF’s Climate-Smart Agriculture initiative aims to put farmers at the center of climate adaptation and mitigation and embed principles of a just rural transition by focusing on productivity and technological solutions that work for all farmers. This includes cutting greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and increasing science-based opportunities for carbon storage in agricultural soils and temperate forests
We are delighted that EDF, as a GRA partner, is looking forward to engaging with GRA members and sharing its experience and expertise in the agricultural sector in furtherance of GRA activities.
Last year the first virtual fair of the international “4 per 1000” Initiative was organised to align with the EU Green Week 2021. It was a great success, and they have decided to make it an annual event and a permanent resource for knowledge sharing, networking, and forging alliances. Networking activities will concentrate in June 2022.
The opening event of the 2022 edition will be held on May 30, 2022, as part of the European Green Week. The closing event will take place on June 30, 2022.
All partners and friends of the initiative are invited to increase their visibility by presenting their work (projects, technologies, methods, services, and other products) at the fair HERE.
Please submit your request for a booth HERE.
Contact Marc Bernard at 4 per 1000 for more information.
Closing date: 13 May 2022
Tiny Beam Fund (a charitable foundation based in the U.S.) offers fellowship awards and research planning grants to academic researchers interested in topics related to drivers and negative impacts of industrial animal agriculture, especially those concerning low- and middle-income countries.
FELLOWSHIPS FOR INDIVIDUALS:
- Amount of each award: US$25,000 (for a team of 2-4 led by PhD holder), $20,000 (for a single PhD holder), $15,000 (for a single PhD student).
- Eligibility: Academic researchers (including independent scholars) who hold PhD or are PhD students in advanced stage of their study. No restrictions as to applicants’ place of residence or citizenship.
- Duration: 4 months
RESEARCH PLANNING GRANTS FOR UNIVERSITIES
- Amount of each grant: US$2,000 – $10,000
- Eligibility: Applicants (or leaders of teams with 2-4 persons) must hold PhD. Applicants (or leaders of teams with 2-4 persons) should be employed by universities that can receive these grants. They need not be located in the U.S.
- Duration: 6 months
Click HERE for more information.
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.