Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SOLO (Soils for Europe)
Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2024-05-31
Soils for Europe (SOLO) is a Coordination and Support Action under the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’. SOLO focuses on the importance of healthy soils for biodiversity and ecosystem services, necessitating transformative changes in practices across all sectors of society. SOLO's main goal is to deliver actionable transdisciplinary roadmaps for future soil-related research and innovation (R&I) in the EU, enhancing future generations' capacity to improve and maintain soil health. SOLO aims to create a holistic R&I agenda, involving diverse stakeholders, including soil scientists, land planners, farmers, educators, and consumer organizations. The project focuses on setting R&I priorities and socio-economic options to achieve the Soil Mission's objectives, contributing to the European Green Deal and other EU strategies. SOLO will develop the Soil Network of Knowledge, involving a diverse range of stakeholders to co-create knowledge and identify priorities. SOLO will implement Think Tanks for each Mission Soil objective, open for participation and public review, to identify knowledge gaps and prioritize actions.
SOLO developed online tools for document creation, storage, collaboration, communication, and dissemination. A key achievement is an online tool for creating, publishing, and open reviewing consortium documents, ensuring public review of future roadmaps and supporting knowledge co-creation. The platform facilitates broad stakeholder interaction with project outputs. A scoping document highlighting initial knowledge gaps for the final roadmap was published and reviewed. In the context of SOLO we also established the Soil Network of Knowledge (SNK), that includes researchers, growers, agricultural consultants, policy experts, and organizations like the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The SNK generates research background and expert knowledge to identify critical knowledge gaps, their causes, and solutions. SOLO also implemented Think Tanks for each Mission Soil objective, enabling stakeholders to co-create roadmaps and feedback. Guidelines for Think Tanks and the SNK were created. In the first 18 months, Think Tanks produced nine preliminary assessments of knowledge gaps, completed in May 2024. These assessments informed the final roadmaps, involving collaboration between Think Tank partners and the partners responsible for generating an overall European roadmap for research and innovation on soils, as well as as to harmonize the reporting and evaluate priorities. Final roadmaps will address identified gaps with technical, social, and economic strategies, highlighting the need for better knowledge production and transfer mechanisms. SOLO partners assessed conditions for implementing the proposed Soil Monitoring Law, broadening soil monitoring scope. SOLO investigated drivers of soil health changes in the EU using the DPSIR framework and meta-analysis. This activity supports the discussion of the specific and overall roadmaps by identifying specific drivers, helping assess implications of solving knowledge gaps and setting funding priorities. Results will be published and potentially integrated into an interactive web tool. Initial findings were included in overarching roadmap discussions, thematic priorities, and regional/local activities. Workshops and events like Soil Weeks and Regional Nodes identified regional soil health gaps and trade-offs. Soil Weeks disseminate results and gather feedback, while Regional Nodes develop tailored roadmaps and future Living Labs. These activities help regionalize research and innovation funding, addressing varying regional needs. Finally, SOLO also worked with the Mission Soil Secretariat, Mission Board, and Mission Soil Platform to propose Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for tracking R&I activities. These KPIs include quantitative and qualitative indicators, interpretations, and methods for obtaining them, providing a comprehensive view of Mission Soil R&I activities. SOLO emphasized qualitative impact narratives to describe funding priority effects, moving beyond quantification to capture real impacts. These results were proposed to the Mission Soil Platform and are awaiting assessment.
Overall, SOLO aims to significantly influence how funding priorities for soil health research and innovation are set, addressing a long-standing lag in funding for this field. By involving researchers and innovators in defining these priorities, SOLO is promoting an open review process for all its outputs, encouraging stakeholder participation. The project implemented Think Tanks that, while structured to meet specific goals, remain open for broader involvement to ensure unbiased identification of knowledge gaps. Ultimately, SOLO seeks to improve soil health across the EU and foster a collaborative community to shape future research and innovation requirements. To this respect, SOLO’s platform is now fully operational, with the first round of documents were reviewed by 50 external reviewers and published online. A common workflow for the Soil Network of Knowledge (SNK) and Think Tanks was established. Nine Think Tanks published scoping documents on the state-of-the-art and key knowledge gaps for each Soil Mission objective, with regular stakeholder meetings to refine these gaps. An evidence-based overview of soil health drivers was produced, with plans to include interactive visual representations on the SOLO platform. The result was the publication of 9 preliminary scoping documents outlining the main knowledge gaps for each Soil Mission objective were published, setting the stage for dynamic roadmaps. An overarching roadmap with a synthesis across Soil Mission objectives and European regions will be developed, including a shared ontology and workflow. Four Regional Nodes were established, characterized by case study areas, trends in land use change, and stakeholder identification, in collaboration with PREPSOIL for data sharing. Lastly, an initial list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and an operational framework for assessing Mission Soil R&I activities were established, with several meetings held to implement these KPIs in the mission platform reporting mechanisms.