We attended the third conference on the Ecology of Soil Microorganisms recently held in Helsinki (Finland) (16-21 June 2018). This interesting conference addresses questions related to individual microbes, microbial communities and microbial networks. We presented the following two communications: “Rhizoremediation of mixed contaminated soil using Brassica napus and a bacterial consortium” and “Antibiotic resistant genes in agricultural soil amended with sewage sludge”.