Last week Feimatta and I headed to Vienna to attend the general assembly of the GROW Observatory. Around forty people from eighteen GROW partners across Europe attended the two day event, including soil scientists, data scientists, permaculturalists and many others.
GROW is a citizens’ observatory that brings together people passionate about soil and sustainable growing techniques with scientists and policy makers. It will combine soil data contributed by individuals with publicly available scientific data to generate new open knowledge and practices. The project hopes to increase small-scale food production and preserve the soil quality for future generations.
The purpose of the general assembly was to reflect on year one of the project, decide a timeline for year two and hold workshops to answer some specific questions.
FutureEverything is principally involved in two areas of developing the GROW Observatory. Firstly, as part of the service ecosystem team, which involves developing an online collaboration hub for GROW participants to share growing experiences and view data from their soil sensors. Secondly, service innovation, which involves exploring products and services that GROW could potentially provide to different stakeholders, delivering real value.
