The SoilCIP currently has 20 international partnerships. The most important of these are described briefly below.

Centre for the Biology of Nematode Parasitism, North Carolina State University, USA: Collaboration on (1) sequencing the genome of the bacterial parasite of nematodes, Pasteuria penetrans. (2) annotation of the genome of the first plant parasitic nematode to be sequenced, Meloidogyne hapla.

China Agricultural University, Beijing, and others: DFID grant for improving livelihoods on farms in Shaanxi province by reducing non-point nitrogen pollution through improved nutrient management.

Colorado State University (USA), International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC, Netherlands), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA, Austria), Universidad de Sau Paulo (Brazil), Kenya Soil Survey, National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (India), Higher Council for Research and Technology (Jordan): joint project funded by UNEP through the Global Environment Fund (GEF) to use a combination of soil carbon models and national scale data sets to quantify soil carbon stocks and assess possible future changes and impacts on Climate Change caused by changes in land use or management.

Cornell University: joint project funded by the US National Science Foundation to study the influence of 'Black carbon' derived from the burning of vegetation in stabilising organic matter in soil against decomposition and its role in soil quality control. Also a joint paper in press from collaborative work on sulphur speciation in soils using XANES.

Dpto. Química y Análisis Agrícola, Ciudad Universitaria, Spain, Universität Göttingen, Germany, and National Institute for Agricultural Research, Chile, for research into nitrogen cycling.

Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi: Collaborative research on the sustainable management of nematode pests with especial reference on root health and water use efficiency.

University of Calcutta, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh, RCEES, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, University of Aberdeen: collaborative research on genetic and soil induced variation in arsenic uptake, translocation and metabolism in rice to mitigate arsenic contamination in Asia.

University of Coimbra, Portugal: Collaborative research on nematode diagnostics, the biological control of potato cyst nematodes, the importance of root health for invasive plant species.

University de Concepcion, Chile: (1) collaboration on soil carbon and nutrient dynamics in volcanic soils funded by British Council ; (2) participation in planning of Chilean nationally funded project to study ecosystem processes in the Patagonian region of Chile under the influence of land use change, agricultural intensification and Climate Change.

Universidad de Sao Paulo (Brazil): collaboration on the rates of change in soil organic carbon following deforestation in the Amazon region and conversion of land to pasture or arable cropping and the contribution of this to Climate Change.

University of Santiago de Compostela, Signal Processing Group, University of Udine, Italy: research on new ways of studying the soil microbial biomass and joint BBSRC grant to study the survival strategy of the biomass.

University of Western Australia: Use of stable isotopes (15N) in tracer studies and improving the efficiency of fertiliser nitrogen use (review in Advances in Agronomy); microbial mediation of nitrogen cycling (first of 3 papers in press in Soil Biology and Biochemistry); investigation of 'trigger molecules' response in South Australian soils.