Deliverable 8.5 Protocol for the collection of research results

Task 8.4 Disseminate & Promote, involves the dissemination and promotion of scientific evidence based outcomes for sustainable soil futures as a result of both the existing and newly developed knowledge within the EJP SOIL Programme. This task aims to capture research results relevant to policy and make them available to policymakers at national, regional, European and international levels. Before these key findings can be shared, they must first be collected. This activity occurs in Sub-Task 8.4.1 Information Capture, which involved the development of a protocol for rapid collection of research results which could be of interest to policymakers. This Deliverable 8.5 Protocol for the collection of research results, describes the protocol developed under Sub-Task 8.4.1. It presents the method of data collection developed and outlines the metadata and input categories of information to be collected. The protocol itself consists of a total of 46 questions within eight sections developed in a MS Excel data collection template.The protocol aims to capture information about the research projects occurring within the EJP SOIL and their findings in such a way as to present a comprehensive snapshot of the completed or ongoing work and the relevance of that work to various areas of policy, stakeholders and policymakers at different levels (national, regional, EU, International). This will contribute to the subsequent creation of portal containing all of the collected data on the EJP SOIL website.The protocol will be completed by EJP SOIL participants who should review their project load and fill in this form for all of the relevant ongoing projects they are currently working on. It is suggested that this review and protocol completion occur bi-annually to capture new projects that arise throughout the course of the EJP SOIL Programme lifetime. Keeping in mind the users of the protocol as well as the long-term aim of dissemination of the key information sought by policy stakeholders by EJP SOIL WP9 “Dissemination” in subsequent tasks, this protocol was developed with consultation from WP9. It was determined that a MS Excel data collection template was best suited to the needs of data summary and dissemination activities. Other criteria including the nature of data input types, the flexibility and customizability for data management and reporting as well as a high degree of user familiarity with this program also contributed to the suitability of MS Excel for this tas