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SOil Innovation Labs: Co-Regenerating And Transforming European Soils

Project description

Living labs to promote Europe’s soil improvement

Today, an estimated 60 % of soils in the EU are severely degraded due to unsustainable land use practices and pollution. The EU-funded SOILCRATES project will establish four living labs in France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain to monitor soil health, improve soil structure, and promote soil literacy. Stakeholders will collaborate with land managers to develop innovative practices tailored to each region. The living labs will explore crop diversity, organic soil amendments, and irrigation techniques. The project aims to share knowledge with the public and inform science, practices, and policy briefs to alleviate pressures on soils. The consortium consists of 21 partners from various sectors, all committed to the EU Mission A Soil Deal for Europe.

Objective

Today, an estimated 60-70% of soils in the EU are (severely) degraded due to unsustainable land use practices and pollution. The SOILCRATES consortium includes 21 partners from across the quadruple helix that fully acknowledge the importance of healthy soils and wish to work together on the tasks defined by the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’. The ambition of SOILCRATES is to create four sustainable and dynamic Living Labs (LLs), to monitor soil health and biodiversity beyond the state-of-the-art, to enhance soil structure and health, and to increase soil literacy in society. During the project lifetime, four LLs based in the Netherlands, France, Ireland, and Spain, will be improving and monitoring the soil structure, soil life, and crop-growing conditions of mineral soils. In these LLs, stakeholders will work with the experimental sites (ESs) land managers to foster innovations and practices suited for the local context. Through co-creation and co-learning, the LLs will increase their knowledge of soils and the underlying soil processes. Special attention would be given to exploring crop diversity and vegetative cover, the application of organic soil amendments and irrigation techniques, and combining these practices at the farm level. By using various educational tools, SOILCRATES will make this knowledge available to the wider public and use it further to inform science, practices, and policy briefs to reduce pressures on soils. By the end of the project, four regional LLs would be fully sustainable and operational. The initial partnership would be enlarged with 40 sub-grantees – ESs and lighthouses (LHs) testing and demonstrating good practices developed through the project (EUR 1,600,000 budget allocated for FSTP). Collaboration will also be established with other LLs, sister projects, JRC, and EUSO. Proposed solutions are expected to spark further regional innovation, uptake of practices and monitoring solutions, and increase the impact of the project.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01

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Coordinator

PROVINCIE FRYSLAN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 657 442,50
Address
TWEEBAKSMARKT 52
8911 KZ Leeuwarden
Netherlands

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Activity type
Public bodies (excluding Research Organisations and Secondary or Higher Education Establishments)
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 657 442,50

Participants (20)

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