Soil Mission Support: Towards a European research and innovation roadmap on soils and land management

Project Information

SMS

Grant agreement ID: 101000258

DOI

10.3030/101000258

Project closed

EC signature date 12 September 2020

Start date 1 November 2020

End date 31 October 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 1 111 818,75

EU contribution

€ 1 100 000,00

Coordinated by

Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SMS (Soil Mission Support: Towards a European research and innovation roadmap on soils and land management)

Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2022-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Healthy soils are the precondition for key services to society, including food and bio-energy provision, natural carbon storage for climate change mitigation, biodiversity and ecosystem services. Soil health is under threat because of unsustainable management in many areas across Europe. A lot of activities in the area of research and innovation (R&I) on sustainable soil and land management are ongoing in Europe. However, an overview is difficult to obtain and coordination is limited. This might result in a slower progress of soil research than theoretically possible as work might be doubled and synergies not be used.
Soil Mission Support (SMS) aimed to improve the coordination of research and innovation (R&I) on sustainable soil and land management in support of the Horizon Europe Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, the European Green Deal and, more generally, on the contribution of soil and land-related services towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through stakeholder inclusive co-development of a soil health R&I roadmap, a soil health ontology, and contributions to the definition and identification of Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses, SMS significantly contributed to the early and ongoing development of the EU Soil Mission. Project results are handed over to follow-up projects, which will partially build up on and continue SMS’s work.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

SMS developed a soil health ontology to ensure a common language on the topic throughout the EU Soil Mission. The ontology includes professional graphic material to promote and ease access to the topic area. Further, SMS performed an extensive stock taking of the state-of-the-art and existing knowledge on sustainable soil and land management and combined these results with a stakeholder inclusive needs analysis for applied sustainable soil and land management. Results were synthesized to a knowledge and R&I gap report that covers all land uses and soil functions. A wide range of actor groups, including an Advisory Board and the Commission Services, has been involved to ensure a stakeholder inclusive development process that covers of all relevant sectors and policy fields. Stocktaking included a mapping of relevant actors and projects, as well as the development of criteria for soil related living labs and lighthouses and mapping of potential candidates all over Europe. SMS results were merged into a stakeholder co-developed action roadmap for R&I on sustainable soil and land management was developed to support the mission implementation.
An SMS knowledge platform was launched, including (i) a general explanation, (ii) The SMS R&I Roadmap, (iii) an interactive map of potential living labs and light houses, (iv) products from living labs and lighthouses, and (v) a short movie on Living Labs and Lighthouses. The knowledge platform shall be transferred to the JRC soil platform (EUSO) and continued after the end of the project.
A final conference was held to promote the project results and hand over to follow-up projects. Further, SMS results were disseminated through numerous presentations at conferences, workshops and surveys, as well as the SMS platform itself.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The novelty of the SMS project is that it takes an actor inclusive approach across land uses, sectors, policy fields, soil health objectives and SDGs. It takes a systems approach to link sustainable soil and land management factors to key societal challenges and to identify important knowledge domains for such linkages.
Main results are a roadmap for R&I on sustainable soil and land management, co-created with a wide range of stakeholders, a contribution to an identification and overview of living labs and lighthouses for developing, testing and demonstrating solutions on key strategic domains and a stakeholder platform to be used and updated also after the lifetime of the project, e.g. for continued R&I roadmapping.
The main outcomes are an improved coordination of existing activities in Europe and globally and an increased visibility of R&I funding due to the involvement of a wide range of actors.
The main impact is a widespread implementation of soil health improving management in Europe. The impacts are expected to emerge after the lifetime of the project.

Overview of soil and land use types

Systemic SMS Research Framework