Project description
A closer look at investment in soil health
Europe’s soil is being irreversibly lost and degraded mainly due to natural factors such as climate change and human activities such as agriculture. While an investment in soils is necessary, soils can take decades to recover. Given this scenario, the EU-funded InBestSoil project will design an economic valuation system of the ecosystem services delivered by a healthy soil and the impacts of soil interventions, and assess its incorporation into business models and incentives. This will allow public and private organisations to assign economic value to their actions. Involving 19 partners like farmers and enterprises from 10 countries, InBestSoil will provide data, evidence, tools and models to assess how investment in soil health can contribute to long-term resilient and sustainable use of soil.
Objective
More than half of Europe's soils are degraded by pollution, erosion, and compaction, among other problems, and, in a climate change scenario, this degradation is likely to worsen. Currently, the loss of soil quality is costing an estimated €50 billion per year. However, soil health is still considered an abstract concept that cannot be introduced into financial activities and on which it is very difficult to legislate.
The objective of InBestSoil is to co-create a framework for investment in conservation and recovery of soil health, by developing an economic valuation system of the ecosystem services delivered by a healthy soil and the impacts of soil interventions, and its incorporation into business models and incentives. This will allow public and private organizations to give economic value to their actions over soil health, codesign strategies with local stakeholders, and work collectively to deliver national and EU policy ambitions. InBestSoil will provide data, evidence, tools and models to assess how investment in soil health can contribute to the transition to a long-term resilient and sustainable use of soil, using 7 lighthouses and 2 living labs, which provides a total of 9 study areas across 4 biogeographic regions from Europe (Boreal, Continental, Atlantic, Mediterranean), and different land uses (agriculture, forest, urban, mining), as models for co-creation and co-design (multi-actor approach, responsible research and innovation and open science). This 48-month project will involve twenty partners from ten countries, with very different profiles (universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, consultancies, farmers, and NOGs, among others). This design will facilitate the scaling up of results and their internationalisation, facilitating investments in soil health for companies, public administrations and investment groups around the globe.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences sustainability sciences
- social sciences economics and business business and management business models
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
- social sciences political sciences public administration
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.6 - Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.2 - Culture, creativity and inclusive society
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HORIZON.2.4 - Digital, Industry and Space
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HORIZON.2.3 - Civil Security for Society
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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.
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.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02
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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.
36310 Vigo Pontevedra
Spain
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.