Laboratories define an ambitious workplan for 2025 at the eighth GLOSOLAN meeting
The eighth meeting of the Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSOLAN) was held from 11 to 13 November 2024 at FAO headquarters in Rome (Italy). The hybrid event brought together 26 in-person attendees and approximately 500 online participants. It included members of the GLOSOLAN steering committee, representatives of the GLOSOLAN-Spec (soil spectroscopy) working group, and the Chairs of the regional soil laboratory networks who attended in person. Meanwhile, other participants joined virtually. This event marked the network's first in-person gathering since 2019, following disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The network, established in 2017, now counts around 1 200 registered laboratories in over 160 countries. The event was a significant milestone for the network, enabling the GLOSOLAN and GLOSOLAN-Spec steering committees to have side sessions before and after the plenary sessions. These sessions focused on translating the network’s ambitious work plan for 2025 into practice.
Key highlights and goals for 2025
The meeting opened with remarks from Lifeng Li, Director of the FAO Land and Water Division who underscored the key role soil laboratories played in generating soil data. “To me, soil data and information are the genetic code of soils. Harmonized data really play a critical role in providing reliable and comparable information across borders and projects and support evidence based decision making for soil management” said Li Elh Moudi Moustapha Abdourahaman, GLOSOLAN Chair, welcomed the participants by emphasizing the collaborative foundation of the network that enabled laboratories to support one another, while advocating for increased collective efforts to strengthen and expand this cooperation.
After reviewing the main achievements of 2024 and the planned activities of the regional networks for 2025, participants discussed the global workplan of GLOSOLAN for 2025. This includes the finalization of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) whose harmonization process has been initiated by the network over the last year and their translation in different languages and the inter-laboratory comparisons (proficiency tests - PTs) which were launched in 2024. Moreover, the outline of the global PT 2025 was presented, alongside other tools developed by GLOSOLAN to support laboratories worldwide in reinforcing their quality control procedures. A series of new online capacity building sessions has been planned for 2025 covering various techniques of soil testing. Moreover, new infographics will be published to raise the awareness on the network activities and on the role played by soil laboratories workplan.
Moreover, Raphael Viscarra Rossel from Curtin University in Perth, Australia was elected as new Chair of the GLOSOLAN-Spec working group for the period 2024–2026.
Collaboration with INSII
During the last day of the meeting, the members of the International Network of Soil Information Institutions (INSII) were invited for a joint session. This collaborative session fostered productive discussions aimed at strengthening connections between soil laboratories and soil information institutions. These efforts are expected to enhance the flow of high quality data for the production of soil maps and reports.