Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PREPSOIL (Preparing for the ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ Mission)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-07-01 do 2023-12-31
Lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of long-term soil health is a major driver of soil degradation
affecting its capacity to provide ecosystem services. The ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ Mission proposes a novel approach
to R&I for impact, based on Open Science and strong stakeholder and citizen engagement. PREPSOIL will adopt a
proactive approach to co-create with stakeholders, leveraging on both offline and online facilities, with the ultimate
purpose of generating long-lasting interaction spaces. Furthermore, PREPSOIL will provide the first assessments and
efforts towards an improved knowledge base and awareness level on soil health for multiple stakeholders. PREPSOIL’s
web portal is envisaged as the European “one-stop-shop” for all information, resources and digital engagement tools
for the Mission stakeholders. It will offer an open-source workspace, including collaboration instruments, ready to be
expanded to meet requirements from the Mission.
This interaction and engagement strategy supports stocktaking and dialogue to understand how regional ‘soil needs’
assessment, supported by harmonised monitoring mechanisms, can lead to action in Living Labs (LLs) and Light Houses
(LHs) for soil health. An ambitious 'soil needs' appraisal campaign will be carried out. In combination with other actions,
it will provide direction and capacities for the future national soil health monitoring mechanisms, as well as mapping
and preparing the implementation of regional LLs through model business plan guidance.
affecting its capacity to provide ecosystem services. The ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ Mission proposes a novel approach
to R&I for impact, based on Open Science and strong stakeholder and citizen engagement. PREPSOIL will adopt a
proactive approach to co-create with stakeholders, leveraging on both offline and online facilities, with the ultimate
purpose of generating long-lasting interaction spaces. Furthermore, PREPSOIL will provide the first assessments and
efforts towards an improved knowledge base and awareness level on soil health for multiple stakeholders. PREPSOIL’s
web portal is envisaged as the European “one-stop-shop” for all information, resources and digital engagement tools
for the Mission stakeholders. It will offer an open-source workspace, including collaboration instruments, ready to be
expanded to meet requirements from the Mission.
This interaction and engagement strategy supports stocktaking and dialogue to understand how regional ‘soil needs’
assessment, supported by harmonised monitoring mechanisms, can lead to action in Living Labs (LLs) and Light Houses
(LHs) for soil health. An ambitious 'soil needs' appraisal campaign will be carried out. In combination with other actions,
it will provide direction and capacities for the future national soil health monitoring mechanisms, as well as mapping
and preparing the implementation of regional LLs through model business plan guidance.
PREPSOIL supports the roll-out of the Mission Soil by generating awareness and knowledge on soil needs among multiple stakeholders in regions across Europe and land use categories (agriculture, forest and natural, urban, and post-industrial). As a first step towards developing a long-term collaboration with stakeholders in a living lab (LL) context, soil needs assessments have been conducted in 20 representative European regions. With an interdisciplinary and participatory research approach, more than 500 stakeholders interacted in workshops and focus group interviews. The results of the research process were synthesized for each land use type allowing for identification of commonalities, specificities and recommendations. The findings were presented at the European Mission Soil Week in Madrid, Spain, 2023, co-organised with the Mission Secretariat, with the aim to support a wider appraisal effort as further preparation for the next phase of the Mission Soil.
PREPSOIL works to improve access to soil health information as a means to take effective action and has to that end, created the Knowledge Hub, a multilingual, open, online repository of soil-related resources providing a single point of access to existing resources focused on soil health and soil literacy in Europe. The Knowledge Hub aggregates educational and scientific materials, best practices, how-toes, experiments, policy recommendations, practice know-how, trainings and videos produced by major European initiatives, EU institutions and Academia.
As part of the efforts to engage, co-learn and co-create with “agents of transition”, partners are engaging with “Communities of Practice” (CoPs) through video interviews in which CoPs describe the means, methods and experiences they have collected through their work to establish healthy soils with the overall purpose to foster common understanding, acknowledge differences and discuss ways of supporting the Mission objectives. In the Forum – a virtual discussion space - CoPs and other stakeholder can enter into discussion to share experiences, best practices, challenges and needs.
In an effort to contribute to improving the knowledge base for the Mission’s soil monitoring framework, including data harmonization, , partners have interacted with and reviewed other projects to evaluate knowledge and gaps on status/advancement of soil monitoring, complementarity of monitoring programs, need for harmonization and existing obstacles; stocktaking for national initiatives addressing urban, post-industrial, natural and forest areas. In addition, for the purpose of assessing the possibility of using satellite-based EO at different scales to soil observations, work is ongoing assessing how Satellite-based EO can provide the basic information needed to estimate indicators initially proposed by the Mission board. Work has begun on mapping and analyzing existing citizen science initiatives to help collect and manage soil information and critically identify potential contributions as well as gaps. In parallel, a mobile app is being developed to provide real-time soil observations and obtain more knowledge about soil, aligned with the citizen science activities.
For the purpose of contributing to the mobilisation of dialogues with LLs, a conceptual framework for soil health LLs/LHs for valuing and enhancing the co-creation processes, based on the Soil Mission Implementation Plan, has been developed to identify the essential characteristics of LLs for each land use. The framework, mapping of LLs and generation of business plans, is expected to contribute to the preparation and implementation of regional LLs.
PREPSOIL works to improve access to soil health information as a means to take effective action and has to that end, created the Knowledge Hub, a multilingual, open, online repository of soil-related resources providing a single point of access to existing resources focused on soil health and soil literacy in Europe. The Knowledge Hub aggregates educational and scientific materials, best practices, how-toes, experiments, policy recommendations, practice know-how, trainings and videos produced by major European initiatives, EU institutions and Academia.
As part of the efforts to engage, co-learn and co-create with “agents of transition”, partners are engaging with “Communities of Practice” (CoPs) through video interviews in which CoPs describe the means, methods and experiences they have collected through their work to establish healthy soils with the overall purpose to foster common understanding, acknowledge differences and discuss ways of supporting the Mission objectives. In the Forum – a virtual discussion space - CoPs and other stakeholder can enter into discussion to share experiences, best practices, challenges and needs.
In an effort to contribute to improving the knowledge base for the Mission’s soil monitoring framework, including data harmonization, , partners have interacted with and reviewed other projects to evaluate knowledge and gaps on status/advancement of soil monitoring, complementarity of monitoring programs, need for harmonization and existing obstacles; stocktaking for national initiatives addressing urban, post-industrial, natural and forest areas. In addition, for the purpose of assessing the possibility of using satellite-based EO at different scales to soil observations, work is ongoing assessing how Satellite-based EO can provide the basic information needed to estimate indicators initially proposed by the Mission board. Work has begun on mapping and analyzing existing citizen science initiatives to help collect and manage soil information and critically identify potential contributions as well as gaps. In parallel, a mobile app is being developed to provide real-time soil observations and obtain more knowledge about soil, aligned with the citizen science activities.
For the purpose of contributing to the mobilisation of dialogues with LLs, a conceptual framework for soil health LLs/LHs for valuing and enhancing the co-creation processes, based on the Soil Mission Implementation Plan, has been developed to identify the essential characteristics of LLs for each land use. The framework, mapping of LLs and generation of business plans, is expected to contribute to the preparation and implementation of regional LLs.
1. The guidelines to create Soil Health National Hubs can contribute to the establishment of national focal points involving national authorities, promoting interaction between policy-makers and stakeholders on soil-related issues potentially leading to greater involvement of experts and stakeholders with relevant practical knowledge in the process of developing soil policies in the MS.
2. Soil needs overview in Europe : the methodology used is interesting to be upscaled to other regions as part of a wider appraisal effort and has the potential to be appliedin further regions.
3. Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for regions can potentially be used for future programming of the Soil Mission and other related Missions.
4. Soil Observation CS Mobile application may eventually contribute to a raised awareness level among citizens on the value of soil.
5. Online Soil Knowledge-Hub may eventually contribute to easy access and sharing of evidence-based information and materials, including training materials, informing society to make informed decisions.
6. LLs/LHs online interactive atlas may eventually contribute to increasing connectivity and knowledge exchange allowing LLs/LHs to interact and become inspired by each other.
7. LLS/LHs Business plans: Beyond the Soil Mission, the business plan gives an opportunity to upscale LLs/LHs in different soil use types and socio-exonomic conditions.
8. Service package recommendations for LL development provides the opportunity to accelerate the adoption, maturity and optimise the running of the Mission LLs/LHs under the different land use contexts.
9. Assessments of soil monitoring satellite-based EO suggests possible improvements to some soil degradation estimates, and to explore the link beteen landscape heterogeneities (as described by EO) and soil biodiversity.
10. CS as crucial soil monitoring enables better monitoring of soil quality in parallel (or even separately) alongside more conventional methods and EO satellite survey methods
2. Soil needs overview in Europe : the methodology used is interesting to be upscaled to other regions as part of a wider appraisal effort and has the potential to be appliedin further regions.
3. Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for regions can potentially be used for future programming of the Soil Mission and other related Missions.
4. Soil Observation CS Mobile application may eventually contribute to a raised awareness level among citizens on the value of soil.
5. Online Soil Knowledge-Hub may eventually contribute to easy access and sharing of evidence-based information and materials, including training materials, informing society to make informed decisions.
6. LLs/LHs online interactive atlas may eventually contribute to increasing connectivity and knowledge exchange allowing LLs/LHs to interact and become inspired by each other.
7. LLS/LHs Business plans: Beyond the Soil Mission, the business plan gives an opportunity to upscale LLs/LHs in different soil use types and socio-exonomic conditions.
8. Service package recommendations for LL development provides the opportunity to accelerate the adoption, maturity and optimise the running of the Mission LLs/LHs under the different land use contexts.
9. Assessments of soil monitoring satellite-based EO suggests possible improvements to some soil degradation estimates, and to explore the link beteen landscape heterogeneities (as described by EO) and soil biodiversity.
10. CS as crucial soil monitoring enables better monitoring of soil quality in parallel (or even separately) alongside more conventional methods and EO satellite survey methods