We currently maintain a very active collaboration with researchers from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), particularly with Prof. Wim H. van der Putten, Dr. Ciska Veen, and Dr. Lilia Serrano-Grijalva. As a result of several visits and the active collaborations between members of NIOO-KNAW and the UCA, Raúl has been awarded an Honorary Fellow distinction within the Terrestrial Ecology Department. This is considered a great honor, as there are only a maximum of two honorary fellows per department and eight for the whole institute. This position is awarded for three years (2021-2024) and is intended to facilitate a close contact and visits, as well as to foster new collaborations within the institute.

Our joint interests are broad. For example, Wim and Ciska are official collaborators in our ECO-4-FUN project in grasslands funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Raúl is also a close collaborator in Lilia’s MSCA project about how to steer the fast transition of conventional into organic agriculture.

Moreover, during these three years of official partnership, we intend to explore together how to translate the huge field-based knowledge that we already have concerning plant-soil feedbacks in natural and managed systems into something that can be of practical use for land managers and food growers.