The International Scientific School for Young Scientists "Monitoring, protection and restoration of soil ecosystems under anthropogenic load" is held within the framework of the SFedU megagrant "Biorestavration of polluted soil ecosystems". Within five days, the participants of the school and the conference will take part in plenary discussions and master classes, as well as make scientific reports.

The guests and participants of the conference were greeted by the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Rostov region Alla Kushnareva:

"The Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology faces many important tasks that cannot be solved without science: this is the creation of the red book, the red book of soils, the preservation of biological diversity, the preservation of specially protected natural territories of the region, even supervisory activities cannot do without science. We see the deep interest of scientists in these issues and thanks to this we are confident that we will be able to achieve success in the implementation of our projects," Alla Kushnareva said.

The President of the SFedU Marina Borovskaya also addressed the participants of the conference with a welcoming speech, noting the importance of the issues discussed:

"Modern, growing demands for the development of science and technology require the creation and development of competent and timely digital solutions. The Priority 2023 project supports the creation of consortia and scientific and educational partnerships based on the development of research. Southern Federal University has chosen a project related to social, environmental and food security as a priority. This is very important, since this issue is close to many of our partners and correlates with the social programming of the coherent environment of the future. We have every reason for cooperation and consistent long—term cooperation, especially in the field of training young researchers," Marina Borovskaya said.

Pavel Makhno, Vice-Rector for Educational Activities and Information Technologies of SFedU, also made a welcoming speech.

The chairman of the International Program Committee of the conference was the leading scientist of China Ming Hung Wong, professor, head of the megagrant of the SFedU "Biorestavration of polluted soil ecosystems", chief researcher of the laboratory of the SFedU "Soil Health", adviser to the Educational University of Hong Kong (The Education University of Hong Kong). The Professor welcomed the participants, drawing attention to the need to pay attention to environmental and food security issues in the world.

Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Soil Science and Assessment of Land Resources of the Southern Federal University, chief researcher of the Laboratory of the Southern Federal University "Soil Health" Tatiana Minkina told the guests about the implementation of the Southern Federal University strategic project "Management of soil resources and agro-climatology" in the framework of the program "Priority 2030", as well as about the achievements of the team of scientists of the Southern Federal University in this direction, including the creation of a map of the metagenome of soils of the Rostov region, the opening of new educational programs, online courses for specialists in the field of agriculture, natural resources, active publication activity, active work of postdocs and much more.

As part of the international conference on September 12, its participants visited the Petrovsky Bio-Farm, which is not only the only producer of organic products in the South of Russia, but also an industrial partner of the Southern Federal University for the implementation of a strategic project under the Priority 2030 program. Thanks to the metagenomic soil map developed by scientists of the SFedU, nine sites of agricultural lands of the bio-farm were studied, in addition, students of the SFedU practice on the territory of the bio-farm, produce soil samples for various studies and much more.