19.03.2026
Teams from CDP and IMA have recently published a study in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture introducing the Long-term field experiments (LTE)-Map, an interactive open-access metadata platform supporting data reuse and collaboration in the European and global contexts (Dönmez et al., 2026).
LTEs, are significant agricultural infrastructures for understanding how farming practices affect soil health, crop productivity, and environmental sustainability, typically longer than 20-years. Since information about these trials is often scattered across institutions and databases, the LTE-Map addresses this challenge by providing a standardized metadata platform aligned with FAIR data principles, allowing researchers to discover and explore trials through an interactive map interface.
The platform currently documents
688 long-term trials across 42 countries, offering researchers a gateway to decades of experimental knowledge and highlights the significant role of ZALF in developing digital research infrastructures for sustainable agriculture and soil data integration.
The study was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the BonaRes Project (Grant Number: 031B1064B), and by the European Union’s HORIZON Innovation Actions framework within the SoilWise project (Grant Number: 101112838), supported by the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) consortium FAIRagro (German Research Foundation DFG – grant number 501899475).
Currently, the paper is for download at the following link and reference:
