LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
410005 Russia Saratov 602 office
239 Bolshaya Sadovaya Str. POB 244
+7 (8452) 43-60-60 e-mail: [email protected]
www.lifeforce.pro
Life Force Group announces a Contest of research works on evaluation of humic products
potential for soil application in agriculture and environmental technologies on the principles of
organic, conventional and intensive farming.
Following the results of the Contest the Conference of young scientists “Application of
innovative humic products” (LIFE FORCE-2017) will be held in the framework of the Fourth
Conference on Humic Innovative Technologies “From molecular analysis of humic substances to
nature-like technologies” (HIT-2017).
The conference dates:
HIT-2017 will take place from October 15 to 19, 2017.
LIFE FORCE-2017 and the Contest winners awarding will take place on October 19, 2017,
together with the closing of the HIT-2017 conference.
The conference venue:
HIT-2017 will take place at the Lomonosov MSU, Moscow, Russia.
LIFE FORCE-2017, the Contest winners awarding and the closing ceremony of the HIT-2017
will find place aboard the ship “Vatel” on the Moscow River.
Aims and objectives:
 to mobilize the intellectual potential of the promising experts from different countries of
the world in order to develop strategies and solve urgent problems of soil dehumification,
imbalance of humus buildup, soil erosion and fertility decrease;
 to popularize the Contest issues in Russia and other countries and systematize the best
research works, projects and developments in these scientific areas;
 to involve young scientists and specialists in agronomy, biology, agricultural chemistry,
soil science and other related spheres in the process of intellectual search for new models
of development of organic, conventional and intensive farming technologies.
The mission of Life Force Group is to encourage the scientists to conduct multidimensional
studies on evaluation of the potential of humic products from lignite and sub-bituminous coals in the
aspects of soil properties improvement, fertility increase, enhancement of productivity and quality of
agricultural products and ornamental plants.
THE TOTAL PRIZE FUND OF 16 000 USD
is divided in several nominations:
"Nomination of 2500 USD" – 2 (two) works will be selected on this nomination.
The Grand Prix winner will be chosen between two winners of the First nomination.
"Nomination of 1500 USD" – 4 (four) works will be selected on this nomination.
"Nomination of 500 USD" – 10 (ten) works will be selected on this nomination.
CONTEST REQUIREMENTS
1.
Students, graduate students and researchers of the Russian and foreign universities and
research institutes under the age of 35 years are welcomed to participate in the Contest.
410005 Russia Saratov 602 office
239 Bolshaya Sadovaya Str. POB 244
+7 (8452) 43-60-60 e-mail: [email protected]
www.lifeforce.pro
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
2.
The research paper should be a complete scientific and practical research designed in the
format of a scientific article of no less than 5 pages and no more than 15 pages.
Experimental research on these topics carried out in small or microfield experiments and in
laboratory experiments are accepted to the Contest.
Life Force Group will provide humic products for participants in required quantities free of
charge and the products delivery to the participant’s address will be at the expense of Life Force Group.
All works related to Contest criteria will be published in the Collection of research papers and
also in electronic format. The works of the winners in three nominations (16 research works) will be
published in the scientific journal "Agrochemical Herald" in December 2017. The Grand Prix winner
will also have an opportunity to make a publication of his research work in one of the international
WoS-indexed journals at the expense of Life Force Group (but not more than $500).
IMPORTANT DATES
The deadline of submitting the applications for participants is April 17, 2017.
The deadline of consideration of applications is April 21, 2017.
The deadline of submitting of final Contest works is September 25, 2017.
The announcement of results is October 02, 2017.
The Conference of young scientists LIFE FORCE-2017, the Contest winners awarding and the
closing ceremony of the HIT-2017 will take place aboard the ship “Vatel” on the Moscow River on
October 19, 2017.
CONTACTS
The form of the application for participation can be completed below on this web-page or you
can download the form and send it to the contacts indicated below.
For more details and any questions you can contact us by phone: +7 (8452) 44-40-40 or +7
(8452) 45-95-74 or by e-mail [email protected]. The technical project coordinator are: Dinara
Kapkova (extension 106) and Anastasia Arkhipova (extension 124).
DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTEST
Nowadays the whole world faces the problem of soil exhaustion, fertility decrease,
dehumification and violations of the humus balance. One of the most eco-friendly solutions to this
problem can be humic products application in agriculture and environmental technologies. These
modern and environmentally-friendly products are based on humic substances found in maximum
concentrations in the oxidized layers of lignite and sub-bituminous coals.
According to the principles of organic farming only natural substances (that are not chemically
modified) can be used for soil application. Humic products, obtained by low-temperature physicalmechanical processing of organic raw materials (lignite, sub-bituminous coals), are fully meeting this
requirement.
The problem of soil fertility recovery is also very important for application of the technologies of
traditional and intensive farming.
Life Force Group consolidates manufacturers and distributors of products under the brand names
SILA ZHIZNI, REASIL and LIFE FORCE. Our mission is to create innovative, top-requested and
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
410005 Russia Saratov 602 office
239 Bolshaya Sadovaya Str. POB 244
+7 (8452) 43-60-60 e-mail: [email protected]
www.lifeforce.pro
profitable solutions in the field of soil and plants nutrition that meet the requirements of biorational
resources use and organic farming. Life Force Group supplies high-performance products under the
brand name LIFE FORCE® on the global agricultural market and these products are sold under the
brand name REASIL® on the territory of the Russian Federation. These products allow to gain
maximum yield at minimum costs together with the reduction of negative impacts of human activities
on the environment.
Products offered for testing and experiments in this Contest are soil conditioners in the form of
black-brown powder with a content of total humic matter 85-95% on dry organic matter and with total
organic matter ± 80% on dry matter.
Product 1: Life Force Natural Humic Acids is 100% natural product (note: not humate). It had
not been subjected to the processes of chemical modification, only by low-temperature physicomechanical processing of lignite and sub-bituminous coals. Dosage: 300-1000 kg/ha, single application.
Product 2: Life Force Humate Balance is a product consisting of 40% of potassium humates (of
total humic matter) and 60% of natural humic acids (of total humic matter). Dosage: 50-500 kg/ha,
single application.
The effectiveness of these products was confirmed as a result of scientific testing in the arid
regions of Southern Africa, tropical and sub-tropical climate of Central Africa, in the desert climate of
the UAE, as well as in many regions of Russia, and CIS countries.
Such products designed for soils and plants nutrition have been actively used in such countries as
USA, Canada and Australia for more than 10 years, and have appeared in China and in the EU not so
long ago. The mission of Life Force Group is to spread these products for soil and plants nutrition also
in Russia and CIS countries.
To achieve this mission, Life Force Group announces the Contest of research works on
evaluation of humic products potential for soil application in agriculture and environmental technologies
on the principles of organic, conventional and intensive farming. The purpose of this initiative is to give
impulse to researches on the characteristics of the effect of humic products from lignites and subbituminous in different soils and climatic conditions.
General theme of the Contest:
• Evaluation of humic products potential on the improvement of soil properties, increase of soil
fertility, crops productivity and quality enhancement (small-plot and microfield experiments (trials) with
soil application of humic products).
• Evaluation of humic products potential on environmental technologies: application of humic
products for the detoxification and remediation of contaminated soils in small-plot and mitrofield
experiments (trials).
 Evaluation of physical, chemical properties of humic products and examination of their
mechanisms of action (laboratory experiments).
There is a wide variety of research topics because of their scientific novelty but we offer to
follow the thematic areas listed below to search and select a topic for the Contest:
o The impact on physical (agrophysical, hydrological), chemical (humus content, carbon cycle,
nutrients balance) and biological (microbiological and enzyme activity, status of soil mesofauna)
soil properties.
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
410005 Russia Saratov 602 office
239 Bolshaya Sadovaya Str. POB 244
+7 (8452) 43-60-60 e-mail: [email protected]
www.lifeforce.pro
o The impact on plants productivity when applied with the mineral fertilizers and plant protection
products, evaluation of the possibility to reduce doses of agrochemical products with the
application of humic products.
o Impact on soil humus status when humic products are applied with green manure crops.
o Perspectives of humic products application for landscaping (city lawns, recreation zones).
o Evaluation of humic products as a soil ameliorant for depleted, degraded and contaminated soils,
taking into account the different types of pollutants, to improve stress resistance of plants, and
other aspects.
RULES FOR PRESENTATION OF CONTEST WORKS AND THE COURSE OF THE
CONTEST
1. Everyone who is interested in the Contest should send an application for participation. You have
to specify your contact information, the topic of research work, a short description and the
required amount of humic product (see Application form in Appendix). Applications will be
selected for compliance with the stated research topics.
2. Life Force Group will provide humic products for participants in required quantities free of
charge and the products delivery to the participant’s address will be at the expense of Life Force
Group.
3. The participant performs the investigation and present the results in the form of a scientific
article in Russian or English and send it to the Organizing Committee. The articles in Russian
should be prepared in accordance with the requirements of “Agrochemical Herald” journal
(http://www.agrochemv.ru/en/rules).
4. The articles are subject to competitive selection by an expert group, that consists of Russian and
foreign scientists.
5. All selected works will be published in the scientific Collection of research papers. One copy of
the Collection of research papers with a Certificate of Participation will be sent to each author.
6. Life Force Group awards prizes and identifies a group of finalists in three categories according
to the results of the qualifying round.
7. The Conference of young scientists LIFE FORCE-2017, the Contest winners awarding and the
closing ceremony of the HIT-2017 will take place aboard the ship “Vatel” on the Moscow River
on the 19th of October, 2017. All participants will be invited to the Conference for exchange of
experience and discussion of the results of all researches. The event will be reflected in the
media. If the winner cannot attend the Conference, the prize money will be transferred to his/her
personal account.
8. Life Force Group will pay the participant registration fee (equal to 25 USD) for the winners, who
wish to participate in the HIT-2017 conference (you could find more information and register as
a participant if you follow the link: http://www.humus.ru/hit-2017/eng/).
9. All works related to Contest criteria will be published in the Collection of research papers and
also in electronic format. The works of the winners in three nominations (16 research works)
will be published in the scientific journal "Agrochemical Herald" in December 2017. The Grand
Prix winner will also have an opportunity to make a publication of his research work in one of
the international WoS-indexed journals at the expense of Life Force Group (but not more than
$500).
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
410005 Russia Saratov 602 office
239 Bolshaya Sadovaya Str. POB 244
+7 (8452) 43-60-60 e-mail: [email protected]
www.lifeforce.pro
EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR CONTEST WORKS
- Presentation of Works: in the format of scientific articles of 5-10 pages, including the title, author'
name and institution’s names; abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion,
conclusions and practical recommendations, references.
- Abstract: should contain only the main information about the research: the essence of the experiments,
the results and their interpretation.
- Introduction: it is necessary to rationalize this research, show the relevance and scientific novelty, to
define the purpose of the research.
- Materials and Methods section should include the following information: the time, the place and the
soil type used for the trial (experiment); the trial scheme; conditions for growing of plants, types of
cultivated crops; analytical methods. In case you mention the types of plants, fungi and microorganisms
you need to specify their Latin name. The research work should reflect the statistical processing of
quantitative data indicating the number of replicates and the method of statistical evaluation.
- The results should be presented not only in the form of the conclusions on the observations but also in
the form of identification of regularities following from tables and figures.
- Conclusions should be specific and appear from the resulting material.
- The list of references should include only used sources.
The evaluation of work will be conducted by authoritative scientists in the field of
agricultural chemistry, soil science and ecology.