Rodents are involved in 400 million zoonotic infections annually, and for massive crop and stocks destructions, thus representing a major threat to both health and food security. Progress has been made in rural tropical areas, especially through the test, optimization and appropriation by farmers of Ecologically Based Rodent Management (EBRM). It relies on a good knowledge of pest rodent biology and community-based sustainable modifications of the environment in order to decrease rodent population. However, large gaps of knowledge remain about urban rodents that are abundant and highly deleterious to millions of city inhabitants, especially in poor and rapidly expanding urban settings. Accordingly, recent scientific studies and WHO experts' syntheses all point towards an urgent need for interventional research on rodent-associated issues in cities, especially in developing countries. SCARIA is a sustainability science project that explicitly aims at addressing such a challenge by walking pathways to sustainable, community-based mitigation of rodent impacts in four African slums (Benin, Ethiopia, Niger and Madagascar). To do so, a panel of academics, public services, social enterprises, local NGOs, associations and representatives will pursue two main objectives: (1) to build and animate multi-stakeholder local working groups in four urban living labs who will rely on both scientific and local knowledge to discuss and formalize an urban EBRM adapted to each local socio-economic, cultural and environmental context; (2) to produce baseline data (cartography; rodent diversity, mobility and spatial distribution; zoonotic pathogens in rodents and humans; socio-economic impacts of rodents; project perception by the inhabitants) in all four pilot sites to provide socio-environmental proxies for future urban EBRM implementation and evaluation. As such, SCARIA will be the first initiative to focus specifically on urban EBRM in Africa, thus opening the gate to a new community of practice.

The aim of Soils4Africa is to provide an open-access soil information system with a set of key indicators and underpinning data, accompanied with a methodology for repeated soil monitoring across the African continent. The soil information system will become part of the knowledge and information system of FNSSA and will be hosted by an African institute. Activities are: (i) define use cases and indicators in consultation with stakeholders; (ii) make a functional design of the soil information system; (iii) develop detailed procedures and tools for the field activities based on the LUCAS methodology and collect 20000 soil samples; (iv) develop detailed procedures for laboratory work and analyse the collected soil samples at one reference laboratory located in Africa; and (v) develop the technical infrastructure for the soil information system and serve the results as open data linked with open EO data. The project addresses the work programme of SC 2 in the following ways. First, it contributes to priority 2 (Fostering functional ecosystems) because the soil information system is a tool to target interventions that improve soil quality and provides insight in the impact of these interventions. Secondly, it contributes to priority 1 (Addressing climate change and resilience on land and sea), as the soil information system will contribute to the assessment of carbon losses from soil and the identification of areas with high potential for soil carbon sequestration. Finally, the soil information system provides a platform for the development of sustainable business models by service companies aiming at the development of sustainable food systems, contributing to priority 3 (Boosting major innovations on land and sea). Soils4Africa is linking with relevant H2020 projects and Copernicus on EO data use. It actively connects organizations across Africa and Europe for synergies and promotes an open science approach.