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School Representation at European Soil Health Symposium in Barcelona and Recognition of Student Collaborations with the Liberties Community Project
Technological University Dublin is a partner in the EU Horizon funded LOESS project on Soil Health Education and Awareness.
The project involves 20 partners from 15 countries and has been running since June 2023. Claire McDonnell and Saurabh Singh are the local coordinators and they recently took part in the project High Level Symposium ‘Shaping Soil health Education for 2030 and Beyond’ in Barcelona on May 7th 2026. This event gathered more than 170 participants in person and online, including teachers, students, researchers, policymakers and citizens committed to soil health. Claire and Saurabh showcased some of the LOESS pedagogical resources for schools, universities and society that they had collaborated on, including materials on Community Engaged Research and Learning for soil health and case studies that showcase effective soil education practices. In the afternoon, they contributed to session on Empowering the Future of Soil Professionals: University and VET Pathways.
The previous week, on April 29th, four final year students from the School were recognised for their collaboration with a community partner, The Liberties Community Project, on Soil Health education at the TU Dublin Sustainability Action Lab 2026 celebration. Natalia Kuchta, Eva Garry and Áine Winters from the Analytical Chemistry (Environmental, Forensic and Pharmaceutical) course were at the event and Sharon Illickal from the Chemical Sciences with Medicinal Chemistry course was awarded a certificate but was unable to attend. Natalia was supervised by Dr Shane O’Reilly and the other students were supervised by Dr Claire McDonnell.
More information on their Community Engaged Research and Learning projects can be found here.