GroundTruth - Citizen Science for Soil Health
GroundTruth is a citizen science project led by Teagasc and Vistamilk where students, teachers, farmers, and local communities are ‘digging deep’ into the amazing world below our feet, assessing the health of the nation’s soils and learning to safeguard soil health.
About GroundTruth
GroundTruth is a citizen science initiative, designed to improve soil literacy and raise public awareness of soil health. It will empower students, teachers, farmers, and local communities to assess and safeguard their soils by providing accessible tools, knowledge, and data collection opportunities.
Why join?
Learn something new – Discover the hidden world beneath your feet. Understand soil’s role in ecosystems and how it supports plant health. Learn practical skills in assessing soil health and empower yourself to manage soils sustainably.
Make a real impact – Your data will support environmental research and policy, contributing to national monitoring efforts on soil health and biodiversity. Be a co-creator of knowledge that helps scientists, policymakers, farmers and gardeners to make better decisions.
Protect the planet – Healthy soils store carbon, purify water, fight climate change, support biodiversity, and produce nutritious food
Connect with others – Meet like-minded people who care about soil, nature and sustainability. Engage with soil scientists and specialist advisors through events and project activities
Get access soil health resources – Each participant will receive a resource pack with materials and step-by-step guides. You'll also get access to videos, webinars, podcasts, infographics, factsheets, and educational supports on various aspects of soil health developed by the GroundTruth team
Attend hands-on events - Participants will be able to attend a series of optional hands-on events and farm walks as part of a dedicated soil health week.
It's fun and easy – No science background needed. Just curiosity and a willingness to get involved!
Chance to win a prize – Get the opportunity to win a prize
Help us dig into soil health!
What will I have to do?
1. Using simple, guided methods, you’ll assess the health of the soil in your farm, garden, school, or park by doing four easy tests, each of which provide information on a different aspect of soil health:
- An Earthworm count
- A soil structure assessment known as VESS (Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure)
- A flower insect timed (FIT) count
- An underwear degradation test
2. Record observations using a simple recording sheet and app
3. Take and share some photos
4. Submit your findings to our research team
What is the timeline of events?
- May/June – Project launch and resource packs sent to participants
- June/July – Pre-event survey, initial FIT count, and underwear test begins
- By end of September – Complete all soil health tests and submit data
- September – Soil Health Week featuring on-farm and online events across Ireland
- December 5th, World Soil Day – Final event with project results and participant prizes
GroundTruth is co-funded by Research Ireland and the Dept of Education. The organisations involved in the project are Teagasc, VistaMilk, National biodiversity data centre and Airfield estate.
Expressions of interest in participating in GroundTruth are open until May 9th.
After this date we will no longer be able send packs to new participants, but you can still get involved!
All the information needed to participate will be available online for you to download at your convenience.
You can participate in events, contribute data, and all the digital resources (factsheets, videos, educational resources, infographics, podcasts) will be freely available online as they become available.
For more information contact groundtruth@teagasc.ie