Karl Richards is Head of the Environment, Soils and Land Use Department, Johnstown Castle. He leads a team investigating nitrogen dynamics in soil, nitrate leaching and denitrification in croplands and grazed grasslands soils. His research has focused on the investigation of options to mitigate N2O from soils (such dietary manipulation, cover crops and the use of nitrification inhibitors); understanding landscape scale nitrogen dynamics; investigating N2/N2O partitioning in soils and aquifers. His research has encompassed soil microbial ecology and denitrification functional gene studies in soil. Karl is an Irish representative on the Global Research Alliance cross-cutting group. Recent research highlights includes leading the research on protected urea that led to its inclusion in the national greenhouse gas inventory as the main mitigation measure. He has published over 100 peer reviewed scientific papers since 2005. He is currently an associate editor of Nature Scientific Reports and Soil Use and Management. Karl’s research is aligned with Spoke 1 soil in VistaMilk. He is co-supervising a postdoctoral researcher and a PhD student in Spoke 1 within Teagasc.