EJP SOIL is a European Joint Programme Cofund on Agricultural Soil Management contributing to key societal challenges including climate change, water and future food security. 

The objectives are to improve knowledge and develop tools and an integrated research community to foster climate-smart agricultural soil management that allows sustainable food production, sustains soil biodiversity and soil functions preserving the ecosystem services.

The main aim of the EJP is to promote a network for an integrated community of research groups working on aspects related to agricultural soil management. To fill the identified knowledge gaps, EJP SOIL fosters research projects and synthesis through the organization of internal calls. 

A 3-days event, corresponding to the EJP Soil Annual Science Days, will be held online from 29th to 31th March 2021, in order to facilitate scientific knowledge exchange within the EJP SOIL consortium and to strengthen scientific networks with peers in soil research. The Annual Science Days focus on presenting research and results from EJP SOIL projects and discussing scientific topics relevant to the consortium.

The 1st Science Day is on “Europe's soils, the road to go” and is open to all interested people, while the 2nd and 3rd days are an internal event for consortium partners.

In particular, on 30th March (Day 2), the SOMMIT Project “Towards a sustainable agriculture: strategies for minimizing GHG emissions and enhancing soil C sequestration” will be presented. The main objective is to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies between soil C sequestration, nitrous oxide and methane fluxes, and nitrate losses as affected by soil management practices aimed at increasing soil C storage. SOMMIT is coordinated by CREA and ENEA is involved in the Project activities.

Furthermore, on 31th March 2021 (Day 3), in the frame of the first group of parallel break-out sessions, Annamaria Bevivino, Head of the  Laboratory for AgriFood Sustainability, Quality and Safety and ENEA Scientifc Responsible of the Project, will present the contribution entitled: "Mapping soil microbiome for healthy agroecosystems" to the call “European soil biodiversity forecast toward resilient agroecosystems in response to climate change” (INDICATORS2/SE4).