The main goal of the Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe is to establish 100 living labs and lighthouses to lead the transition towards healthy soils by 2030.

Life on Earth depends on healthy soils. However, it is estimated that between 60 and 70% of EU soils are unhealthy. Soil is a fragile resource that needs to be carefully managed and safeguarded for future generations. One centimetre of soil can take hundreds of years to form, but can be lost in just a single rainstorm or industrial incident.

The Mission leads the transition towards healthy soils by

• funding an ambitious research and innovation programme with a strong social science component
• putting in place an effective network of 100 living labs and lighthouses to co-create knowledge, test solutions and demonstrate their value in real-life conditions
• developing a harmonised framework for soil monitoring in Europe
• raising people’s awareness on the vital importance of soils

The 8 Mission objectives

1. reduce desertification
2. conserve soil organic carbon stocks
3. stop soil sealing and increase re-use of urban soils
4. reduce soil pollution and enhance restoration
5. prevent erosion
6. improve soil structure to enhance soil biodiversity
7. reduce the EU global footprint on soils
8. improve soil literacy in society

The Mission will support the EU’s ambition to lead on global commitments, notably the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and contribute to the European Green Deal targets on sustainable farming, climate resilience ,biodiversity and zero-pollution. It is also a flagship initiative of the long-term vision for rural areas.

To know more about how the Mission will achieve its goal, read the Mission implementation plan.

Mission living labs and lighthouses

Living labs are places where to experiment on the ground. Soil health living labs will be partnerships between multiple partners and different actors, like researchers, farmers, foresters, spatial planners, land managers, and citizens who come together to co-create innovations for a jointly agreed objective. Living Labs will be established at territorial, landscape or regional scale, with several experimental sites covered underneath.

This is an innovative way to do research and innovation: in a Living Lab, experimentations happen in real-life conditions, operating with end-users i.e. commercial farms or forest exploitations, real urban green parks or industrial sites, and other actors such as NGOs or local authorities. This is key to make sure that research and innovation find solutions to societal challenges and challenges that land managers face on the ground.

Lighthouses are single sites, like a farm or a park, where to showcase good practices. These are places for demonstration and peer-to-peer learning. Here good practices are tested or in place and can be showed to inspire other practitioners to move towards sustainable land management. In addition, in lighthouse sites, researchers work together with land managers to ensure that research responds to concrete needs encountered in the field.

Mission Soil platform website Visit the Mission Soil Platform

In the Mission Soil platform website you find:

• information about Mission Soil and the opportunities to engage in its activities,
• the Mission projects, funding opportunities, news, and events,
• a contact point and helpdesk to reply to requests for information on the Mission and its activities.

Mission Soil Manifesto:
It is also possible to sign the Mission Soil Manifesto and become part of a community that cares for soil. This option for participants in regions, municipalities, private or public companies, organisations, associations, schools, educational institutes, universities, research institutions and a wide range of stakeholders as well as individuals (Sign the Manifesto).