5th EUSO Stakeholders Forum
The EUSO Stakeholders Forum is an annual event aiming to actively engage and exchange with the soil community,
from policy makers and scientists to local actors, civil society representatives and citizens.
PART I of the 5th EUSO Stakeholders Forum was held online on 12th June 2025.
PART II was held in-person on 9th September 2025 in Seville Spain in conjunction with EUROSOIL 2025.
PART III was held in-person on 9th October 2025 in Rome Italy.
PART III - 9th October 2025:
5th EUSO Stakeholders Forum - "Soil challenges and solutions in the Mediterranean"
Soil challenges and solutions in the Mediterranean
- Keynote - Pandi Zdruli
- SOILS4MED and AUSO Projects, soil health monitoring and soil information systems - Claudio Zucca
- Legacy Soil Data and Soil Information in Lebanon - Talal Darwich
- Advancing Soil Knowledge in the Mediterranean - Dimitrios Triantakonstantis
- Classification problems with the soils of the Mediterranean - Erika Michéli
- Advances in soil erosion modelling and monitoring in Europe - Pasquale Borrelli
- Identifying key soil quality indicators for the Mediterranean agro-ecosystems - Eleftherios Evangelou
- Soils of stone-wall bench terraces - Danny Itkin
- Nematode Diversity as a window into soil health: Evidence from the Arganeraie Biosphere - Mayad El Hassan
- Soil health monitoring from space: the ESA SUP NextSoils+ project - Stefano Pignatti
- Toward soil health assessment through process-based modelling of ecosystem service bundles - Fabio Terribile
- Participatory research on sustainable land management practices in Cyprus - Adriana Bruggeman
- Assessing desertification: a new approach for the EU - Calogero Schillaci
5th EUSO Stakeholders Forum - "Cutting edge developments with the EU Misson Soil"
Location: Seville, Spain
The EUSO invited participants of the EUROSOIL 2025 conference to attend the “5th EUSO Stakeholders Forum - Cutting edge developments with the EU Mission Soil". This session took place on Tuesday, September 9, in the ITALICA auditorium. The Forum hosted new developments from the Mission Soil projects.
Presentations were given by several Mission Soil Projects: LivingSoil, ECHO, AI4SoilHealth, EDAPHOS, SPIN-FERT, BENCHMARKS, SOILSCAPE, NBSOIL, SUS-SOIL, Sol O-live, SoilWise, Humus, and SOILRES.
Cutting edge developments with the EU Mission Soil
- Developing a bare soil composite to improve the SOC mapping in Denmark - Sebastian Gutierrez
- Rethinking soil health in urban systems: insights from research trends and field implementation - Paolo Di Lonardo
- Drivers of soil health of olive groves and their impact on the sustainable production of olive oil in the Mediterranean - Antonio J Manzaneda
- SoilWise -Advancing a fair data and knowledge infrastructure for healthier soils in Europe - Radu Giurgiu
- Multi-scale spectral mapping, risk assessment, and phytomanagementinnovations in the EDAPHOS project - Paula Madejón
- Development and optimization of highly effective and innovative biostimulant granulates formulations for horticulture - Robert Guiu Sans
- Strengthening subsoil health through sus-soil for resilient ecosystems and sustainable land use - María Rosa Mosquera-Losada
- GrójecLivingLab: Co-creation for Sustainable Soil Management in Practice - Jerzy Jonczak
- Multi-faceted biodiversity integration for a healthy soil and resilient crop management - Davide Cammarano
- The LILAS4SOILS project: carbon farming in the mediterranean region - David Miguel Ribeiro
- Towards healthier soils through echo: Citizen engagement, progress and preliminary results - A. Piero
- NBSOIL Academy: training soil advisorsto promotesoil healthacross Europe - João A. Coblinski
- Challenges of Soil Monitoring at LL on permanent crops - Ruth Pereira
- From Pilot Cases to Policies: The HuMUS Project Experience in Participatory Soil Governance - Francesco Molinari
PART I - 12th June 2025:
5th EUSO Stakeholders Forum - "How can healthy soils increase EU competitiveness?"
Chair: Panos Panagos
Co-chairs: Elise Van Eynde and Alberto Orgiazzi
During this event, case studies from the private sector showed how healthy soils can promote competitiveness in terms of the three pillars:
a) closing the innovation gap;
b) decarbonisation and competitiveness;
c) reducing excessive dependencies.
The event focused on business models that address the impact of healthy soils on boosting EU competitiveness. Interesting presentations included business models related to carbon farming, remediation of contaminated sites, the banking sector, AgriTech, the food chain, biotechnology, the development of bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides, and laboratories.
Agenda, and speakers. You can also view the promotion flyer of the event here.
The event resulted in an opinion paper on how healthy soils can boost EU competitiveness: Panagos, P., Orgiazzi, A., Lugato, E., Vandenesch, G., Thannberger, L., Neff, J.C., Reijneveld, A., Mathijs, E., Chapot, P., Guerrini, S., Štyriaková, D., Kremers, J., Martin, P., Van Der Tol, R., Burgeon, V., Kalimeri, E., Van Eynde. E. 2025. Healthy soils as a booster to EU competitiveness. Land Use Policy, 158:107755.
How healthy soils contribute to EU competitiveness
Recording (mp4)
- Five perspectives on soil health - Erik MATHIJS (KU Leuven)
- The Soil Capital program - Victor Burgeon (Soil Capital)
- Together towards a sustainable and vital Agri-Foodsector in 2040 - Ramon Van der Tol (Rabobank)
- The Sustainable Business of Carbon Farming - Paul Martin (ISCIA)
- The Critical Role of Soil in supporting EU Agri-Food Sector Competitiveness and Sustainability - Pascal Chapot (Nestle)
- Root2Success: improving soil and roothealth with Serenade Soil Activ (QST 713) to boost plant performance, marketable yield and value chain efficiency in potato and tomato - Albert Schirring (Bayer)
- Sowing Innovation, Harvesting Competitiveness: Carbon Farming and the New Entrepreneurial Wave - Elena Kalimeri (impacthub)
- Soil Health for All: A Bottom-Up, Scalable, and Global Approach to Routine Testing Across Sectors - Empowering Land Users, Agri-Food Systems, Policy Makers, and Researchers - Arjan Reijneveld (Eurofins)
- Managing the nitrogen trade-off between soil carbon sequestration and productivity through new technologies including biostimulants and biofertlizers - Jason Neff (Syngenta)
- How Novamont’s biodegradable and compostable materials and solutions contribute to soil protection - Sara Guerrini (Novamont)
- Activating natural potential in soils and natural processes in plants as an approach to achieving holistic competitiveness - Darina Štyriaková (Ekolive)
- Harnessing Soil Biodiversity at Scale: Generare’s Discovery of Novel Natural Bioactive Compounds - Guillaume Vandenesch (Generare)
- The Opportunity of the Remediation and Valorization of Sites to Promote new Functions in Urban Ecosystems - Laurent Thannberger (Valgo, Rnest)