PREPSOIL

Preparing the European Mission towards healthy soils

Project acronym: PREPSOIL
Project full title: “Preparing for the ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ Mission”

Instrument: Coordination and Support Action funded by the European Commission Horizon Europe programme (HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-01).

Start: 01/07/2022, Ends: 30/06/2025 Duration: 36m; 
Consortium: 18 partners 
Project Coordinator: Aarhus University, Denmark
Project Web Sitewww.prepsoil.eu

PREPSOIL on CORDIS: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101070045

  • PREPSOIL will support the implementation of the Soil Mission by creating awareness and knowledge on soil needs among stakeholders in regions across Europe.
  • PREPSOIL will widen the understanding of Living Labs as a vehicle for engaging stakeholders in soil improvements in different land use types (agriculture, forestry, urban, etc.).
  • PREPSOIL will create understanding of how different approaches to soil monitoring may support the transition to sustainable land use; it will engage with soil ambassadors and collect information on soil education by establishing a one-stop-shop for soil literacy, communication and engagement as a state-of-the-art web platform.

Press Release of PREPSOIL project (Oct. 2022).

Project Summary

PREPSOIL mission on healthy soils is focused in three key impact pathways:

  • Improve the knowledge-base and access to critical information for land managers on soil health;
  • Establish an overview of soil needs and status regarding monitoring Living Labs and Light Houses;
  • Increase soil literacy and awareness to citizens and society at large, through education, dissemination and access to information.

PREPSOIL will feature:

  • An atlas of living labs and soil lighthouses
  • Soil ambassadors
  • A PREPSOIL-TV
  • Discussion areas
  • A knowledge hub
  • A mobile app
  • Training and workshops

Detailed description of PREPSOIL project

Lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of long-term soil health is a major driver of soil degradation affecting its capacity to provide ecosystem services. The ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ Mission proposes a novel approach to R&I for impact, based on Open Science and strong stakeholder and citizen engagement. PREPSOIL will adopt a proactive approach to co-create with stakeholders, leveraging on both offline and online facilities, with the ultimate purpose of generating long-lasting interaction spaces. Furthermore, PREPSOIL will provide the first assessments and efforts towards an improved knowledge base and awareness level on soil health for multiple stakeholders. PREPSOIL’s web portal is envisaged as the European “one-stop-shop” for all information, resources and digital engagement tools for the Mission stakeholders. It will offer an open-source workspace, including collaboration instruments, ready to be expanded to meet requirements from the Mission.

This interaction and engagement strategy supports stocktaking and dialogue to understand how regional ‘soil needs ‘assessment, supported by harmonised monitoring mechanisms, can lead to action in Living Labs (LLs) and Light Houses (LHs) for soil health. An ambitious 'soil needs' appraisal campaign will be carried out. In combination with other actions, it will provide direction and capacities for the future national soil health monitoring mechanisms, as well as mapping and preparing the implementation of regional LLs through model business plan guidance.

Project Objectives:

Dissemination, exploitation, communication and stakeholder management

  • To support the execution of the project activities by implementing a thorough dissemination, exploitation and communication plan which will be further developed in specific stakeholder management activities and the generation of National Soil Hubs.

Identification, mapping and evaluation of EU regional soil needs

  • To identify the existing ‘soil needs’ in 19 contrasting regions in European MS and AC that represent the main European pedo-climate zones and land uses, and to kick off a wider appraisal effort across the EU regions.

To provide a starting point for recommendations on priority actions to be implemented in LLs/LHs.

  • To build the Project’s Web Portal as the main digital mean to reinforce PREPSOILs activities aimed at supporting the Mission’s implementation.
  • To equip stakeholders with tailored digital networking tools to connect and exchange, including LL atlas and virtual CoP forums;
  • To connect and improve access to existing quality resources including to science-based information through a multi-lingual knowledge hub;
  • To offer ‘best-of’ online materials to inspire citizens, educators, etc.;
  • To promote and support virtual interaction on best practices on social innovation and soil education, including Soil Ambassadors.

Knowledge transfer and co-creation in regional living labs

  • To improve the understanding of the concept of Living Labs and how LLs/LHs can lead to a significant improvement of soil health.
  • To map current and emerging LLs and LHs using a new taxonomy and to engage LLs in development. To co-design a spectrum of model business plans considering the high variability among LL and the taxonomy.
  • To create a service package for knowledge transfer and co-creation for LLs/LHs, prioritizing specific soil needs

Monitoring frameworks and soil indicators:

  • To consolidate the Mission’s soil monitoring framework by assessing how to extend current and new results –including from other projects -obtained on agricultural soils to natural, forest, urban and industrial soils.
  • To assess the possibility of using satellite-based EO at different scales and citizen contribution to soil observations.
  • To define training needs on soil health monitoring and indicator use and give first input to capacity building.

Promoting soil education, awareness and engagement of Communities of Practice

  • To engage soil advocates and agents of transition in the Mission by a combination of direct contact and virtual fora, reaching out to a wide range of actors in the various Member States and regions.
  • To identify and promote best practice examples of soil education, training and co-learning in soil health for young people, professionals and grassroots.

 

Milestones - Important outpouts

Soil Needs: Guidelines are released (Oct 2022)

Soil Literacy: The knowledge Hub is launched (Jun 2023)

Engagement: The mobile app is launched (Jan 2024)

Citizen scientist: LL/LH is launched (Jun 2024)

 

JRC role

JRC will actively participate in all project activities ensuring collaboration in relation to EUSO.

 

Prepsoil