SOLO project partners meet in the Netherlands

Between 23 and 25 April, around 30 partners from the SOLO (Soils for Europe) project met in Wageningen, Holland. The University of Évora team, which includes MED researchers, is responsible for coordinating the “Soil Weeks” and “Regional Nodes” activities, both part of Work Package 4 – Roadmaps integration.

MED researchers Helena Guimarães and Teresa Nóvoa were present at this meeting in the Netherlands and organised three sessions:

• “Training on facilitation and techniques to work as a group” (Helena Guimarães), with the aim of reinforcing the project partners’ knowledge of facilitation and group work, with a view to applying it not only within the consortium, but also, and above all, with stakeholders Key topics for the project were covered, such as the concepts of transdisciplinarity and participation, as well as techniques for implementing them, such as active listening or planning work sessions.
• “Reflection on the Soil Weeks” (Teresa Nóvoa), which took stock of the first edition of the Soil Weeks held so far (these dissemination events have reached over 1800 people in 7 European countries). This was followed by a period of discussion in groups to reflect on how to link this activity with the other Work Packages in order to maximise the cohesion of the project.

• “Establishing regional nodes” (Teresa Nóvoa), the parallel session brought together the 4 partner organisations responsible for implementing the Regional Nodes – regional hubs focused on a specific system of use (in Portugal’s case, the Montado), with the aim of bringing regional perspectives to the project, in order to validate and complement the discussion on a European scale. The methodology common to all the Regional Nodes was discussed, as well as the next steps for their implementation.

The meeting was a great experience with many fruitful debates, exchanges of ideas and productive workshops. The SOLO project team has left a face-to-face meeting scheduled for November 2024 in Bulgaria.

The SOLO project, funded by Horizon Europe, aims to create a knowledge centre for research and innovation in the field of soil health and support the European Union (EU) Solo Mission through the development of thematic research and innovation roadmaps, an EU research and innovation (R&I) roadmap, as well as different key performance indicators for R&I.