With soils being a precious resource under threat, it is estimated that more than 60% of EU soils are unhealthy. The EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” aims to pioneer, showcase, and accelerate the transition to healthy soils by 2030, supporting the long-term commitments at European and global level within the Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goals. The creation of 100 Living Labs and Lighthouses under the EU Mission Soil will accelerate the creation and uptake of solutions by land managers, showcase measurable increase in soil health, improved social capital and citizen awareness.
Living labs are collaborative initiatives to co-create knowledge and innovations while lighthouses are places for demonstration of solutions and of exemplary achievements. They are individual, local sites (one farm, forest exploitation, industrial site, urban city green area, etc.) that can be included in a living lab area or be located outside a living lab area. The Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses will be multi-actor: they will involve a diversity of actors to ensure co-creation across sectors and disciplines and to speed up the take-up of new ideas, approaches, and solutions.
In this context, we are very glad to announce that the EU-funded Framework Partnership “SOILL – Support Structure for SOIL Living Labs“ is currently under Grant Agreement Preparation phase and is expected to start in January 2024.
Led by the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), the project counts on the close collaboration of 47 international partners to create a one-stop-shop support structure for the network of 100 Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses during the Mission Soil implementation.
Building on the experience of relevant EU-funded projects PREPSOIL and NATI00NS projects, SOILL will support, coordinate, expand, and promote the 100 Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses with dedicated support actions that include dedicated capacity building, knowledge exchange, promotion, and regular monitoring.
If you would like more information on SOILL, please feel free to get in touch with us at [email protected]
The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) is the international, non-profit, independent association of benchmarked Living Labs.
The European Network of Living Labs is the international, non-profit, independent association of Living Labs.
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