On Tuesday, October 17th, we held the 1st meeting of the Turkish Community of Practice (CoP) of the LOESS Project carried out under the Horizon Europe Program online. We established our Community of Practice by bringing together stakeholders from different sectors (such as universities, primary and secondary schools, non-governmental organizations, public institutions, and freelancers) to participate in the activities and contribute to the project outputs of the LOESS project, which aims to increase ‘Soil Literacy’ in different segments of the society by emphasizing the importance of soil in 15 European countries, including Turkey. We believe that the number of members of the LOESS Turkey Community of Practice, which currently consists of 14 people, will increase every day. In our 2-hour meeting, after giving detailed information about the LOESS project, we talked about the benefits of joining the Community of Practice for members and the contributions that community members can make to the LOESS project. While the participants introduced themselves, we also shared information about inspiring initiatives, courses, and field studies in Turkey related to soil studies. Then, we exchanged ideas about the state of soil literacy in our country, what are the challenges and needs. Afterward, we made a list of which other stakeholders we could involve in the project and informed our members who volunteered for the Education and Innovation Group (EIG). Finally, we set a common date and time for our meetings in the coming months. Thank you all very much for your participation and valuable contributions. See you again on November 14th.
