The Soil Science Challenge Grants Program was a $20 million (GST exclusive) competitive grants program. It supported universities to research critical gaps in soil science including soil hydrology, soil carbon dynamics, soil biology and nutrients and the soil/root interface.
The program funded 11 grant agreements with universities from 2021–22 to 2025–26.
Projects and contact details
University: The University of Queensland
Grant funding: $1.59 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor Michael Bell
This project explored the impact of changing nitrogen fertiliser management strategies on nitrogen use efficiency in contrasting rainfall environments typical of the broadacre grains industry in northeastern Australia.
Summary report: Impacts on soil organic matter and the dynamics of soil water and nitrogen in cropping
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: The University of Queensland
Grant funding: $0.52 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor Peter Kopittke
This project examined how long‑term cropping and land management practices affect Phosphorus in soil. The findings will help improve fertiliser efficiency and support sustainable agricultural production.
Summary report: Phosphorus in long-term agriculture soils
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: The University of Melbourne
Grant funding: $1.97 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor Jim He
This project, the first of its kind at a national scale in Australia, investigated the diversity, distribution and ecological functions of soil faunal groups across key agricultural systems, including wheat, sugarcane, cotton and pastures.
Summary report: Soil fauna and nutrient transformation of agricultural soils
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: The University of Melbourne
Grant funding: $1.78 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor Deli Chen
This project investigated the quantification, causes and consequences of soil organic carbon decline in Australian grain cropping systems. The project focussed on the interaction between soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics, the risks posed by current management and the options available to halt or reverse further decline.
Summary report: Soil organic carbon decline in Australian grain cropping
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: The University of Sydney
Grant funding: $0.77 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor Balwant Singh
Sustaining soil organic matter and its carbon pool (which interact to form soil organic carbon) is crucial for climate mitigation and to maintain soil ecosystem services. This project examined the key drivers in the soil-plant-microbe nexus that preserve carbon in soils.
Summary report: A soil-plant nexus to maximise organic carbon sequestration in the soil
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: The University of Sydney
Grant funding: $2.69 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor Budiman Minasny
This project investigated the diversity and spatial distribution of soil viral communities across Australia through a coordinated program of field sampling, laboratory protocol development, high-throughput sequencing, and integrated bioinformatic and spatial analyses.
Summary report: Diversity and spatial distribution of soil viral communities across Australia
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: The University of Sydney
Grant funding: $1.67 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor Budiman Minasny
Conventional monitoring approaches do not account for natural soil diversity. This project developed the pedogenon–genosoil–phenosoil framework, that enables continental scale mapping, of where and how human activities have altered soil.
Summary report: High-resolution evaluation and monitoring of soil change for Australia
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: Adelaide University
Grant funding: $2.84 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor Stuart Roy
This project examined how soil microbial communities have responded to two decades of changing agronomic management practices across the grain-growing regions of southern Australia.
Summary report: Drivers of change for soil microbiomes
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: The University of Western Australia
Grant funding: $3.94 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Emerita Professor Lynette Abbott AM
This project characterised soil biological mechanisms and identified effective and economic principles for biological and chemical fertiliser combinations.
Summary report: Soil biological mechanisms underpinning the effects of soil amendments
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: The University of New South Wales Sydney
Grant funding: $1.10 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor Paul Munroe
This project focussed on developing engineered soil amendments that enhance carbon storage without the environmental trade-offs associated with conventional land management practices. Combining materials engineering with soil science and microbiology, this project explored how functionalised carbon mineral materials capture and stabilise carbon within soil systems.
Summary report: Engineering novel soil amendments
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.
University: Queensland University of Technology
Grant funding: $0.80 million (GST exclusive)
Project Lead: Professor David Rowlings
This project researched the processes that determine whether carbon is likely to stay in the soil over the long term in drought-prone grasslands across northern and eastern Australia.
Summary report: Keeping soil carbon in grasslands through drought
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.