SoilHood: NBSOIL Academy is making progress—First module completed! 🌱📚
In this issue of the SoilHood newsletter, we spotlight key events, including the NBSOIL consortium meeting in Albacete, Spain, the launch of the First Module of the NBSOIL Academy, the launch of the Marketplace and the unveiling of the Visioning Cards. You’ll also find an overview of recent activities, upcoming events, MOOC and important project updates, along with insights from beyond the NBSOIL community. So, sit back, relax, and let’s explore the world of soil together!
NBSOIL Consortium Meeting in Albacete: Field Visits and Local Insights
The NBSOIL consortium gathered in Albacete from 23-25 September 2024, hosted by our Spanish partners Agri Sat and the Instituto Técnico Agronómico Provincial, S.A.U. During the 3-day meeting, partners advanced on the co-creation of the upcoming project activities. The NBSOIL team also had the opportunity to visit local farms, including Casa Nueva and Casa Jara, renowned for their innovative no-till practices in irrigated and rainfed annual crops. The visit to La Losa farm highlighted sustainable no-till cover cropping techniques in rainfed almond production. The field trip concluded with a charming dinner at Bodega Las Calzadas, a family-owned winery. Guests were treated to an engaging presentation about the winery’s history, delivered by the family, making the evening truly memorable.
NBSOIL Project Celebrates the Launch of the Academy First Module
NBSOIL Project partner Centre National d'Agroécologie, in collaboration with Ver de Terre Production, hosted the launch of the first module of the NBSOIL Academy in September. This session was full of valuable insights, interactive Q&A and excellent networking opportunities.Stay tuned for the launch of Module 2 on 23 October and register now for the NBSOIL Academy to continue exploring innovative soil management solutions through nature-based approaches.
Introducing NBSOIL Visioning Cards
The NBSOIL Visioning Cards aim to create a flexible and modular visual language to help describe and define soil-related challenges and solutions. The cards are divided into five subgroups:
Take a look at the NBSOIL Marketplace
The NBSOIL Marketplace is a knowledge hub for soil restoration, guiding users through soil restoration projects and offering different types of content, including techniques, case studies, videos, tools and more, linked to facilitate exploration.The wiki format of the Marketplace promotes communities of practice, fostering connections between users and supporting global soil restoration. The marketplace is hosted on the Triple Performance platform to ensure sustainability and replication. It is available in English and French, with more languages added regularly, and focuses on the user journey to ensure users find what they need.
The NBSOIL MOOC is Now on the Academy’s E-learning Platform
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The NBSOIL Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) is now available as Module 0 of the Academy. The content is based on the 6-hour course developed and launched last November as an introduction to nature-based solutions (NBS) for sustainable soil management. Register for the Academy now and start learning about NBS and sustainable soil management.
Course: Soil Training by the British Society of Soil Science
This two-day course includes lectures, a practical soil description session and field visits. Participants will learn about soil formation, major horizons, classification and types in England and Wales, as well as practical skills such as hand texturing and assessing soil properties. By the end of the course you'll be able to describe and interpret soil profiles, understanding soil variability and key diagnostic features.
Upcoming Events
Join us for the launch of the second module of the NBSOIL Academy: Living Lab Facilitation! Our partners, the Soil Association, have designed the event for both current Academy participants and those who are simply curious about what the Academy has to offer. Join us in exploring the concept of Living Labs and start learning with the NBSOIL Academy.
Join the European Mission Soil Week 2024 on 12-13 November 2024 in Brussels (BluePoint Brussels, Blvd Auguste Reyers 80, 1030 Brussels). These two days will include keynote interventions, the presentation of the first Mission Soil Living Labs, engaging discussions, networking activities and field visits.
NBSOIL Project Glossary: Forest Diversification
Forest Diversification is key for resilient ecosystems. It is the practice of managing forests to increase their biodiversity by introducing variability in its composition (multiple species and varieties), structure (mixed tree heights in mixed age stands and heterogeneous arrangement and density of the tree plantation) and genotypic complexity (diverse genetic sources).
Get to know NBSOIL Partners
The NBSOIL Project brings together several organisations from the world of soil. In this section, you will get to know them in each newsletter. In this issue, we introduce you to Instituto Técnico Agronómico Provincial, S.A.U. (ITAP) from Spain. ITAP is a public company created by the Diputación of Albacete in 1986. ITAP's main objective is the transfer of technology, the dissemination of knowledge and technical advances, acting as a bridge and a link between the scientific world and everyday agri-food activities.
Global Research Lead: Soil and Land Health at World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF)
2moExciting!!