Soils are pivotal for a large number of ecosystem services like delivering food, fibre and biofuels, clean air, drinking water and carbon storage. Because of increased intensive land use and global change scenarios, it is expected that these soil ecosystem services will be negatively impacted. For this reason, considerable efforts by scientists and policy-makers are directed towards optimizing land management for maximum functionality in terms of ecosystem services. How can we fully exploit the multifunctional potential of soils? And how is the soil’s functionality impacted by land-use intensification and climate change? This is the theme for the 7th edition of the international PhD course on Soil Ecology.