Priority Research Questions For Soil Sciences In Contemporary World: Opportunities For Collaboration.

Soil science is constrained by challenges including decreasing funding prospects and declining number of new students and young professionals. The future of the profession depends on its ability to address and align with pressing societal challenges. In order to advance the discipline, there is a crucial need to revitalize the impact, relevance, and recognition of soil science as well as promote collaboration beyond traditionally defined research boundaries. This may be fostered by a shift from discipline-focused to cross-disciplinary and issue-driven research approaches. We conducted a collaborative exercise to identify priority soil science research questions as a tool for guiding a future soil science agenda. The collaborative approach adopted involved four stages including, 1) survey-based solicitation of questions from soil scientists and environmental professionals, 2) criteria-based screening of submitted candidate questions by a core working group comprised of soil science graduate students, 3) criteria-based ranking of screened questions by soil scientists and policy experts, and 4) final revision of top ranked questions by leading soil science researchers. The final list presents opportunity for research advancement in emerging and current research areas that are of critical relevance in addressing societal needs. We expect that the identified questions will inspire both existing and prospective researchers, enhance interdisciplinary collaboration, draw the attention of grant-awarding bodies, and ultimately address pressing environmental challenges.