The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI) and EcoFINDERS are pleased to announce the First GSBI Conference - Assessing Soil Biodiversity and its Role for Ecosystem Services, to be held in Dijon, France, December 2-5th, 2014. This will be a dynamic international meeting summarizing the current state of knowledge and recent advancements in the science of soil biodiversity.The conference will provide a venue to meet and discuss current research efforts in soil biodiversity and its links to earth processes, and to promote interdisciplinary collaboration. The goal of this meeting is promote scientific research on the role of soil biodiversity for ecosystem functions and ecosystem services, and to integrate such understanding into international environmental agendas, sustainable policy and land management decisions.