GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Proposed activities should:

• Develop a scalable Africa-wide soil health dashboard, building on the experience of the EUSO Soil health dashboard, leveraging existing data (e.g., Africa Soil Information System AfSIS) and other EU funded projects such as Soils 4 Africa.
• Strategic collection of new data to fill soil knowledge gaps (such as pollution, compaction, biodiversity, nutrient status, acidity/acidification, soil organic matter, soil erosion, soil water) and improve the accuracy and functionality of the dashboard through consultative engagement with national stakeholders.
• Identify critical local/regional thresholds for key soil health descriptors.
• Develop roadmaps to highlight trends in soil health responses to policy instruments.
• Support participating African countries in the development of national soil health strategies in at least 8 countries, to better manage soil resources for agriculture and the environment. In developing the strategies, projects should create use cases and provide training opportunities for the interpretation and use of data.

Proposals should demonstrate a route towards open access, longevity, sustainability and interoperability of knowledge and outputs through close collaboration with the Joint Research Centre’s EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) and SoilWISE and ensure interoperability between the dashboard and other databases (such as national soil information services or the Horizon 2020 project Soils4Africa ).

Proposals should include a dedicated task and appropriate resources to build on the work of Soils4Africa  and other projects on soil information that are being funded by other entities, including philanthropic organisations, particularly where there is geographical or thematic complementarity. The Consortium is invited to propose a long-term sustainability plan for the dashboard in Africa.

While having a focus on Africa, activities could tap into international expertise (particularly from Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) as deemed necessary.