Alex Murray is the PHISHES Project Coordinator. She has a broad background in environmental engineering, ranging from groundwater remediation and subsurface microbiology to water resources management. Over the past six years, she has worked at the Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI), focusing on large-scale hydrological modelling to support decision-makers facing complex water allocation challenges.
Her experience strongly motivates her work within PHISHES, which aims to develop a Digital Platform to support decision-makers in implementing actions to protect soil health.
Alex, how does the collaboration between partners with diverse expertise shape the development of the project’s forecasting tools?
The partners involved in PHISHES are extremely diverse. Some are soil scientists, others hydrogeologists or agronomists. What connects the technical partners is a shared interest in modelling, even though we work at different scales, in different domains and with different specializations. Working together allows us to achieve more than we could individually.
In practice, this means combining the modelling tools each of us uses into what we call ‘model trains’. These allow us to link processes at the soil surface or in the unsaturated zone with catchment-scale hydrological models, assessing soil health measures not only at the soil level but also in terms of their wider environmental effects.
PHISHES also includes partners such as the German Environment Agency (UBA), involved in stakeholder engagement and policy development, ensuring that quantitative model outputs are translated into actionable recommendations tailored to decision-makers’ needs.
What are the main challenges in translating complex scientific results into practical, actionable recommendations for soil protection?
One challenge is that scientific and modelled results often come with nuance and limitations, which must be communicated clearly while still providing a useful message. In PHISHES, we address this by translating model results on soil functions into ecosystem services and then into indicators relevant to soil health.
Another challenge is scale and transferability. Scientific results are often local, whereas policy needs to be applicable more broadly. The PHISHES Digital Platform (PDP) therefore hosts a tested methodology that can be applied across European sites and catchments, supported by links to European databases to fill data gaps. It also helps decisionmakers to understand trade-offs by producing forecast simulations that show the effects of inaction, alternative measures and climate change.
From your perspective as PHISHES project coordinator, what makes this project particularly innovative compared to other European initiatives on soil health?
PHISHES includes many novel and innovative aspects that will be reflected in its scientific publications. However, the most distinctive feature is the strong focus on stakeholder engagement and on applying the methods being developed.
The adoption of the soil monitoring law highlights that the time to act is now. Research remains important, but we already know enough to begin protecting soil health today. PHISHES advances research while also using existing tools to produce this state-of-the-art tool for decision makers – the PDP – to use right here and right now. We know inaction is not the answer, and PHISHES provides a foundation for moving forward.
PHISHES aims to bridge the gap between soil health data and action through a Digital Platform and a Decision Support System. How do you envision these tools supporting decision-makers?
The value of the PDP for decision-makers lies in bringing together many different elements at once. It includes information on what data have and have not been monitored, highlights knowledge gaps, and shows where these can be filled using continental databases. It also integrates climate change scenarios, current practices and best practices into a single, manageable framework.
Another benefit of the platform is its ability to address multiple ecosystem services simultaneously. Often, decision-support analyses focus on a single outcome, such as the effect of a practice on water quality. With the PDP, it is possible to assess impacts on several ecosystem services at the same time, allowing decision-makers to weigh effects across different parts of the environment.
As project coordinator, what are the main responsibilities and challenges of managing a large, interdisciplinary European research project like PHISHES?
My main responsibility as coordinator is to create an environment in which all project partners can achieve great things. PHISHES brings together exceptionally strong scientific expertise, and connecting these minds generates valuable ideas and results. My role is to ensure that partners have what they need to collaborate effectively and work together.
Looking beyond PHISHES, how do you see the role of research projects in supporting the implementation of the upcoming EU Soil Monitoring Law?
Research projects funded under the EU Horizon programme place strong emphasis on dissemination and exploitation. This is critical to ensure that cutting-edge research is taken up in practice and reaches the audiences that need to hear it.
In the context of the EU Soil Monitoring Law, researchers have an important role to play by actively contributing to the process. This is already happening within Soil Mission clusters, where structured interaction allows policymakers to ask questions and the research community to respond. Through this dialogue, researchers can help define processes, build consensus and provide guidance.
More generally, what is your personal vision for the future of soil health in Europe, and what are the key priorities for research and policy?
My personal vision for soil health in Europe is simply that soils are healthy and that people care about them. Soil literacy campaigns are an important part of this process, including reframing how we talk about soil: from ‘dirt’ to something living, valuable and essential to ecosystems.
From a research and policy perspective, one promising direction is the growing recognition of soil as both an ecosystem in itself and part of a larger environmental system. This integrated approach, which is also embedded in PHISHES, helps move beyond compartmentalized thinking and encourages a more holistic view of environmental regulation. Seeing soil as part of a whole, rather than in isolation, is absolutely a step forward.