GlobalSoilMap.net consortium agreement was signed by high-level official representatives from each of the participating regional nodes by the end of July 2011. As the East Asia node, the Institute of Soil science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, represented the purpose of signing this agreement by Dr Renfang Shen. The GlobalSoilMap.net consortium agreement was signed between Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (in Australia), Earth Institute at Columbia University (in USA ) ，Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (in Brazil) , International Union of Soil Science (in UK), Institute of Soil science, Chinese Academy of Sciences ( in China), Institute de Recherche pour le Developpement (in France) , ISRIC – World Soil Information (in Netherlands) , European Union, European Commission, Joint Research Center (in Italy), (JRC REF No. 31703), Natural Resource Conservation Service, US Department of Agriculture (in USA), The University of Sydney ( in Austraila ) and Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (in Kenya & Colombia) GlobalSoilMap.net consortium agreement is intended to provide an overall framework for the parties’ exploration of collaborative functions and activities.

The GlobalSoilMap.net project aims to make a new digital soil map of the world using state-of-the-art and emerging technologies for soil mapping and predicting soil properties at fine resolution. This new global soil map will be supplemented by interpretation and functionality options that aim to assist better decisions in a range of global issues such as food production and hunger eradication, climate change, and environmental degradation. It is an initiative of the Digital Soil Mapping Working Group of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and is led by academic and research centres in all continents.