Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EJP SOIL (Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils) Período documentado: 2021-04-01 hasta 2022-01-31 Resumen del contexto y de los objetivos generales del proyecto 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. Trabajo realizado desde el comienzo del proyecto hasta el final del período abarcado por el informe y los principales resultados hasta la fecha The work performed so far includes the start of the EJP SOIL programme, instalment and maintenance of the programme governance, advisory bodies and management structures, as well as keeping them constantly involved and informed of the programme activities. A Europe wide stocktake was accomplished on a wide range of topics to create a base line for the work to be carried in research on agricultural soil management. A roadmap of activities was developed and consulted together with national stakeholders based on synthesis of existing research, research needs and gaps to serve as an agenda and implementation plan for the next years of the programme and beyond. First and second internal calls for research project proposals where launched as planned in April 2020 and April 2021 respectively, with 10 project proposals selected for funding as the results of the each call. Approved 1st call project started in February 2021 and 2nd call project stared in November 2021. The research in all of these projects is currently ongoing and key research results being gradually uploaded to EJP SOIL website and used in EJP SOIL programmes WP activities. The first external call for research project proposals was also launched in April 2021, concluded in September 2021, with 11 proposals selected for funding by the end of 2021. It is expected that these project will start at the beginning of year 3 as soon as the funding modalities are confirmed with the external funders. As part of education and training activities, the programme has finalized and widely shared the synthesis of current state of European soil science in higher education and foresight study for soil science professional needs and continued with the development of a joint curriculum for PhD training as well as actual organisation of topic-specific PhD courses. Several calls for visiting scientists programme were also launched. To facilitate knowledge harmonization, organization and storage, an analysis of national soil data ownership regulations in all partner countries was undertaken, in order to develop a policy that both respects the legal rights of national data holders and, at the same time, supports data sharing in Europe. Reports on harmonized procedures for creation of databases and maps and on the national and EU regulations on agricultural soil data sharing and national monitoring activities were further revised based on JRC feedback. Knowledge availability and knowledge needs identified during the first and second year of the EJP SOIL were synthesized as planned and used in annual EJP SOIL roadmap update. 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 presented on the EJP SOIL website. 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 participating partner EJP SOIL countries, by synthesizing findings from EU Policy Forum and National policy workshops and identifying and establishing further collaboration with relevant soil initiatives. Resources, Infrastructure and Capabilities Inventory of the EJP SOIL was also finalized and continuously fed with new data. 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 funded internal project have been mediated through various CDE activities such as physical and online workshops, meetings, webinars, conferences, news articles, videos, website announcements and social media activities. EJP SOIL communication and dissemination strategy and plan were further revised and reflected upon in the annual CDE reports. Avances que van más allá del estado de la técnica e impacto potencial esperado (incluida la repercusión socioeconómica y las implicaciones sociales más amplias del proyecto hasta la fecha) 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 and environment protection. It is expected that the EJP SOIL activities would allow reaching the following impacts: • Fostering understanding of soil management and its influence on climate mitigation and adaptation, sustainable agricultural production and environment.• Understanding how soil carbon sequestration can contribute to climate change mitigation (i.e. without being associated with additional N2O emissions) at regional level including accounting for carbon.• Strengthening scientific cooperation at European level including training of young scientists.• Supporting harmonised European soil information, including for international reporting.• Fostering the uptake of soil management practices conductive to climate change adaptation and mitigation, by farmers, i.e. identifying, understanding and possibly developing the enabling conditions for farmers to adopt climate-smart sustainable soil management options.• Developing region-specific fertilization practices considering the local soil, water and pedo-climatic conditions. EJP SOIL project kick off meeting group photo
