On behalf of the intern

ational scientific committee and local organizing committee it is a pleasure for me to welcome you to this event in Montpellier, Southern France, as part of the PHOSPHORUS week 2014.   

Photographs of SPS 2014 SPS_2014_001

SPS 2014 is the fourth of a young and successful series of Sustainable Phosphorus Summits that was launched in Linköping (Sweden) in 2010, then went to

Tempe (USA) in 2011 and Sydney (Australia) in 2012, as related to the GPRI, Global Phosphorus Research Initiative. Coming to Montpellier in the very South of France, i.e. in the Mediterranean basin, shall facilitate the participation of african scientists, and scientists from Southern countries at large, where Phosphorus Sustainability is a big concern. But this is actually a major global issue, as stressed in the Blueprint for Global Phosphorus Security published after the previous SPS in Sydney, Australia.

The primary aim of this multidisciplinary event is to define the global research priority agenda, integrating phosphorus-related issues across scales, geographical regions and scientific domains. To do so, it will bring together scientists and stakeholders from worldwide, including developing and emerging countries, to foster exchanges of views across discipline boundaries and societal domains. In order to better improve phosphorus use efficiency along the whole of its cycle, it is also at stake to better raise public awareness on this major issue, and re-think education and learning on this matter. Participatory research and co-learning will thus be central in this event.

SPS 2014 will take place immediately after the the 5th International Symposium on Phosphorus in Soils and Plants to be held in Montpellier from 26th to 29th August 2014, where concerns about phosphorus nutrition in agroecosystems will be the primary focus. You will thus have the opportunity to attend both events and be part of this unique P week.

Philippe Hinsinger, UMR Eco&Sols, Montpellier SupAgro-CIRAD-INRA-IRD