The NBSOIL Project celebrated the exciting launch of the NBSOIL Academy on 5 June with a webinar reaching over 100 attendees across Europe and beyond. The Academy offers a free, comprehensive training for the new generation of soil advisors across Europe under the EU Soil Mission’s programme.
The NBSOIL Academy launch webinar, led by Soil Association (NBSOIL Partner), focused on providing information on the logistics and content of the course for current and aspiring soil advisors. The other project partners that participated as speakers in the session addressed questions about the academy, its content and the registration process.
The course content will be structured into four modules, alongside a final project. They will include online sessions, live webinars, practical workshops and registration events. The NBSOIL partners Vincent Levavasseur from the Centre National d’Agroecologie (CNA) and Almudena Olivas del Rey from the Instituto Técnico Agronómico Provincial (ITAP) introduced these modules, announcing that they will be released gradually from June 2024 to May 2025.
The final project will address a real soil advisory situation, designed in teams and mentored by the NBSOIL experts. This will span the last nine months of the Academy, from October 2025 until June 2026.
With eight speakers at this event, attendees heard from all aspects of the academy; some presenting more in-depth academic content of this educational tool. Representative of the Soil Mission, Marialuisa Dal Poz, DG Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission introduced the EU mission. Pablo Gómez, speaker on the PREP Soil Project, (INIA) followed with their connections to the project.
The NBSOIL Project Coordinator, Grzegorz Siebielec (IUNG-PIB), reflected on the journey that has led to this important launch day for the academy. “In our project we link soil health, nature-based solutions and soil advisors. Of course, there are many existing and efficient advisory services across Europe but they are not focused on soil health; we are focusing purely on soil health,” Siebielec said.
The webinar focused on academic information on soil and the technology and management of the academy. Javier Montellano, NBSOIL Project Manager (REVOLVE), spoke on its planning and organization.
“The learning pathway is totally flexible; you can stay on level one for all modules or you can go much deeper in one module,” Montellano said. “For example, it is possible for you to focus more on module 3, digital tools. The idea of the final project [in level 3] is to focus on your skills and bring your contacts with local communities and networks–we now have an amazing combination of skills and resources from participants”.
A survey of attendees showed an overwhelming response, with many participants eager to join the academy. Partners were thrilled to see a diverse group of participants from around the world, including Türkiye, Greece, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh and more. Participants euphuistically engaged with everyone about their initial project ideas and the reasons they joined the academy.
“We all depend on Soil,” was the leading answer in the interactive exercises that were done across the session.
NBSOIL Partners are excited to meet all the participants who will join NBSOIL not just as attendees, but as co-creators in shaping the academy’s structure and content. The Academy is a pioneering two-year training prototype aimed at empowering existing and aspiring soil advisors to effectively deploy nature-based solutions. Over the next few months, they plan to be both sharing knowledge and what they’ve been working on, as well as eagerly welcoming outside ideas.
