ABOUT
An alliance for our soil
SoilsWest was established in 2016 to bring together and inform researchers, industry and students, creating stronger partnerships to deliver high quality soil research to farmers and funding partners in one collaborative portal.
A partnership for research and agriculture
The SoilsWest alliance is an independent entity focused on providing a pathway for the discovery and development of soil research to improve both profitability and soil resource management across the Western Australian grains industry.
Centred from 2021 at Murdoch University, this partnership founded initially between the University of Western Australia and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), has continued to grow and deliver opportunities to its member base of highly skilled, independent soil science professionals with complementary scientific and research capabilities, research and industry networks, and infrastructure and technology – now with members at DPIRD, Murdoch, UWA, Curtin University and CSIRO.
The partnership works to develop and deliver strategic research projects supporting the WA grains industry in particular, but also contributes nationally to the Australian grains industry through innovative soil research and policy development. SoilsWest invites wider input and partnerships from other local, state and Commonwealth government institutions, industry and grower groups, agribusiness, Universities as well as specific interest groups.
The SoilsWest alliance provides a ‘marketplace’ and network of discipline focused connections to improve integration between the soil science communities, optimise existing collaborations, provide prospective funding opportunities, provide training and education opportunities, and provide parallel soils information and technologies to ensure the continued development of economic farming systems and food chain security.
OUR IMPACT
"The SoilsWest alliance creates a pipeline of research from scientific discovery through to the application and development of practical solutions in collaboration with growers and industry, helping generate innovative research ideas and partnerships to address both old and emerging challenges to managing soil in Western Australia."
Funding partners
SoilsWest is an alliance in soil research targeting the agricultural sector now supported in its continuation by Murdoch University and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD). Originally a foundational partnership between the University of Western Australia (UWA) and DPIRD, the alliance has grown in membership to include soil scientists and communicators within Murdoch University as the host organisation, DPIRD, UWA, Curtin and CSIRO.
This partnership recognises the breadth of capability and expertise in soil science that exists across the member organisations, and looks to develop research proposals that bring together this capacity by building partnerships and links, with a focus on delivering integrated research that improves soil knowledge to deliver greater efficiency, supports increasing profitability and builds resilience within Western Australian agricultural systems.
Current projects supported in crop nutrition, greenhouse gas emissions, biological function and soil carbon, soil constraints and structure (soil matrix). The objective of the alliance is to jointly undertake research, technology transfer and delivery of soil research to increase and sustain the productivity and profitability of the WA and national grains industry.
This Alliance reflects Australia’s science research priority in ‘Soil and Water’ with soil being an integral component of the supply chain for food, fibre and fresh water.
Join SoilsWest
We invite active contributors, student interest and industry to express interest in being involved with SoilsWest.
We encourage you to contact us with suggestions and questions about how you would like to interact with SoilsWest and ideas for improving delivery of soil science research to you.
