PREPSOIL Knowledge Hub: All things soil in local language
12, December, 2023
Partners from all over Europe have contributed with local language resources relating to at least one of the objectives of the EU Mission Soil to create the PREPSOIL Knowledge Hub, a one-stop-multilingual-shop for best practices, policy briefs, video materials, experiments and publications focused on soil health.
The Knowledge Hub is an innovative platform which has been designed as a key part of the EU-funded PREPSOIL Project which supports the deployment of the EU Mission Soil to reduce soil degradation, while increasing soil awareness and soil literacy in all land-use cases throughout Europe towards 2030.
More specifically, PREPSOIL is charged to provide tools and spaces to facilitate knowledge exchange, capacity building and cross-regional connection through conduits such as its Communities of Practice (CoPs) and Advancing Soil Sustainability Series.
One hub: A plethora of multi-lingual, online information
The PREPSOIL Knowledge Hub is an incrementally growing multi-language online library providing access to numerous resources including best practices and tools, conference deliverables, education and training materials, policy documents and scientific materials focused on different aspects of soil health.
“The primary goal of the Knowledge Hub is to act as a soil literacy aggregator, gathering information to improve access to existing soil resources,” Ning Huang, project officer from PREPSOIL partner Aarhus University explains.
This will be used to inspire and connect citizens and foster Communities of Practice while also providing specialized content for educational purposes. The hub will offer a wide range of resources, including video-recorded, training sessions and materials related to business models and plans of Living Labs, all contributing to the broader Mission Soil objectives.
Searchable index by Mission Soil Objectives
As the Knowledge Hub is designed to support Mission objectives, all of the material uploaded is categorized based on its relevance to these goals, which also ensures an overall alignment with EU targets which include reducing desertification; conserving soil organic carbon stocks; stopping soil sealing and increasing re-use of urban soils; reducing soil pollution and enhancing restoration; preventing erosion and improving soil structure to enhance soil biodiversity.
As well as a searchable index by the Mission Soil objectives, resources can also be filtered by land use, language and country. This makes it possible to find resources in different languages and from different regions. At the moment, the Knowledge Hub includes resources from 13 countries in six different languages.
Citizen-driven focus on local languages
The emphasis on using local languages is a distinctive feature of the PREPSOIL Knowledge Hub.
“The Knowledge Hub being multilingual is essential to engage citizens and raise awareness about soil health and related issues at a local level” Ning Huang explains.
The hub seeks to encourage local organizations and individuals to share their experiences, best practices, and knowledge, making it a valuable resource for the global community, beyond just European countries.
By providing information in local languages and fostering collaboration among various parties, the hub aims to create a rich repository of knowledge that benefits communities, researchers, policy makers, and citizens, ultimately advancing the soil mission objectives on a global scale.
The future of the hub
The Knowledge Hub will be open with a mechanism to upload resources by the public in 2024 with all material reviewed by a dedicated Editorial Board before going online. In the meantime, the PREPSOIL Partners will continuously contribute to and populate the hub with content.
The PREPSOIL Knowledge Hub will be linked to national and regional websites and platforms, and will act as the key repository, access point and discussion forum for the Soil Mission itself.
Interested in learning more about the resources that are already online?
Submit your work in our Knowledge Hub today
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