Climate KIC joins EU Mission Soil as implementation partner
Partnership to start in January 2024
With soils being a precious resource under threat, it is estimated that more than 60% of EU soils are affected by pollution, erosion, or other types of degradation. One of the challenges set by Horizon Europe is to transition to healthy soils by 2030. EU Missions, such as Mission Soil, are a new way to bring concrete solutions to these challenges.
Led by the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), Climate KIC is one of the 47 international partners that will help create a one-stop-shop support structure for the network of 100 Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses during the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” implementation.
Living Labs and Lighthouses
The EU Mission Soil aims to pioneer, showcase, and accelerate the transition to healthy soils by 2030, supporting the long-term commitments at European and global level within the Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goals.
The project’s goal is to establish 100 living labs and lighthouses to lead the transition. They will accelerate the creation and uptake of solutions by land managers, showcase measurable increase in soil health, as well as improve social capital and citizen awareness.
Living labs are places where to experiment on the ground 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. They are collaborative initiatives to co-create knowledge and innovations while lighthouses are places for demonstration of solutions and of exemplary achievements. Lighthouses are individual, local sites (one farm, forest exploitation, industrial site, urban city green area, etc.) that can be included in a living lab area or be located outside a living lab area.
The Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses will be multi-actor: they will involve a diversity of actors to ensure co-creation across sectors and disciplines and to speed up the take-up of new ideas, approaches, and solutions.
What’s next?
The EU-funded Framework Partnership ”SOILL – Support Structure for SOIL Living Labs” is currently under Grant Agreement Preparation phase and is expected to start in January 2024.
Other EU Missions?
Climate KIC is also involved in EU Mission Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, leading the NetZeroCities programme, as well as the EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change, leading Pathways2Resilience.
Find out more about our other EU Missions programmes below.
