Collaboration
Sibling Projects
GOV4ALL Project
GOV4ALL (Governance and business models for living labs: Rural regeneration hubs for tackling soil health challenges in the Mediterranean region) inspires stakeholder networks to co-create regenerative soil health solutions that lay the ground for sustainable landscape restoration, healthier ecosystems, stronger societies, and enduring financial prospects in the Mediterranean region. Funded by the EU and coordinated by Spanish company SAE Innova, this Soil Mission project brings actors of change together in 5 territories in France, Greece, and Spain.
iCOSHELLs Project
The iCOSHELLs project supports the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe,’ aiming to restore healthy soils by 2030. Specifically, iCOSHELLs focuses on three key objectives: reducing soil pollution and promoting restoration, improving soil structure and biodiversity, and increasing soil literacy among society.
To achieve these goals, iCOSHELLs leverages six Living Labs located in the Basque Country, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. These labs bring together diverse local stakeholders to co-design and test practical strategies for soil health improvement.
The project employs a systematic approach that strengthens stakeholder capacities, bridges scientific research with practical solutions, enhances understanding of soil indicators, and replicates effective recovery methods. Its ultimate purpose is to develop and validate scalable solutions that can be applied across Europe.
SOILCRATES Project
SOILCRATES is a project funded by HORIZON Research and Innovation to support the implementation of mission A Soil Deal for Europe-(HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-08) focused on developing innovative solutions to enhance soil quality and promote sustainable soil management practices. Collaborating with leading experts, researchers, and living labs, SOILCRATES aims to address critical challenges related to soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.
SOILCRATES aims at establishing 4 regional and interconnected user-centred Living Labs (LLs) in which actors from the quadruple helix cooperatively improve and monitor soil structure, soil life and crop-growing conditions on mineral agricultural soils. Set in place while co-creating beyond the state-of-the-art practices to improve soil health and increasing soil literacy in society.
With an integrated approach, the project enables the co-development of solutions in the LL and testing and replication in the Experimental Sites and Lighthouses.
LILAS4SOILS Project
LILAS4SOILS addresses the challenging climate situation that affects southern European agricultural soils, particularly in the rapidly warming Mediterranean region. The project focuses on implementing Carbon Farming Practices (CFPs) to promote climate adaptation and mitigation.
Over five years, LILAS4SOILS will develop five Living Labs (LLs) across six countries, involving 24 expert partners, more than 80 farmers and 125 stakeholders. The project will test CFPs on 85-100 demo-sites in diverse farming systems and pedoclimatic zones, focusing on: 1) peatland management, 2) agroforestry, 3) maintaining and enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC), 4) livestock and manure management, and 5) nutrient, pesticides and fertilizers management.
Through collaboration with farmers, researchers, industry and local authorities, LILAS4SOILS aims to accelerate the transition to healthy soils and contribute to standardized Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) frameworks for future carbon markets.
NBSOIL Project
The Nature-Based Solutions for Soil Management – NBSOIL – project is a four-year EU-funded project that aims to create and test a learning pathway for existing and aspiring soil advisors. The project will design an attractive blended learning programme to train a new wave of soil advisors. The training will provide participants with the tools to implement a holistic vision of soil health through nature-based solutions (NBS) and collaborate effectively across different temporal and spatial scales.
SafeNet Project
The EU is committed to halting biodiversity loss caused by climate change and land-use pressures. Addressing this requires preserving biodiversity and enhancing ecosystems’ resilience. The SafeNet project advances these efforts through innovative tools that develop conservation strategies, considering both climate mitigation and forest management needs. Combining biodiversity monitoring, mathematical modelling, and vast datasets, SafeNet aims to understand shifts in gene, species, and ecosystem distributions under different climate scenarios. By prioritising conservation efforts, such as protecting ecological corridors, SafeNet supports adaptive measures. The project’s regional Living Labs and EU Policy Lab bring together stakeholders to co-create sustainable, actionable strategies, fostering a collaborative approach to biodiversity and conservation at multiple levels.
CLIMED-FRUIT Project
CLIMED-FRUIT (Climate change resilience for perennial crops) aims to share knowledge ready for practice, collected from different Operational Groups (OG) across Europe, for a better climate change adaptation and mitigation in perennial crops in the Mediterranean area.
The project is implemented by a multi-actor consortium (advisors, farmer organisations, research and education institutes, one standardisation organisation), and builds on the results of a core group of 9 OGs. Several consortium partners are involved in the coordination and the implementation of these 9 OGs, which allows them to have direct on-hand feedback from practitioners.
MONALISA Project
The MONALISA project (MONitoring and Assessing prevention and restoration soLutIons to combat deSertificAtion – Proejct no. 101157867) is an Innovation Action funded under the Horizon Europe programme by REA, within the framework of the EU MISSION ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’.
The MONALISA project aims combat Land Degradation and Desertification (LDD) by promoting innovative, tailored solutions with proven socio-economic and environmental benefits. MONALISA adopts a transdisciplinary approach, integrating scientific and local knowledge through co-development process involving diverse stakeholders.
The projects’ six Case Studies are Los Pedroches in Spain; Médenine in Tunisia; Berchidda-Monti and Alta Murgia Park in Italy; Asterousia in Greece and Beit Dajan in Palestine, addressing varying aridity levels in Mediterranean area. The project is coordinated by NRD – UNISS.
Key solution groups include adaptive grazing systems, microbial-based biofertilizers, conservation agriculture, ecological restoration, water harvesting and wastewater reuse in agriculture. A core output is a multi-modular web-based Decision Support System.
Soil O-live Project
The olive tree is one of the most important oil-producing crops in the Mediterranean region. However, olive growers face many challenges due to intensive agriculture applications, land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment and functionality loss. In this context, the EU-funded SOIL O-LIVE project will implement a set of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary projects. The aim is to diagnose the environmental situation of olive grove soils on a broad scale. The project will target the most significant areas of olive production in the Mediterranean region. SOIL O-LIVE will analyse the impact of pollution and land degradation on olive groves’ soils, investigate the relationship of soil health status with the quality and safety of olive oil, implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices, and define rigorous ecological thresholds for healthy European olive groves.
TERRASAFE project
TERRASAFE will empower local communities in southern Europe and North Africa to combat desertification. The primary goal of this 5-year, EU-UKRI-funded project, is to co-select and co-test innovations that prevent desertification and/or restore degraded land. Later, we will develop ways to enable wider communities to adopt successful innovations. The project includes 5 community-focused pilot areas, each of which are highly vulnerable to desertification: Italy, Spain, Romania, Tunisia, and Cyprus.
Path4Med Project
Path4Med is an innovative project dedicated to tackling water and soil pollution in the Mediterranean area. By incorporating sustainable agricultural practices and advanced monitoring technologies, Path4Med aims to protect vital ecosystems, improve water quality, and empower communities to create a pollution-free future.
The project brings together experts from across Europe to address the specific environmental challenges of Mediterranean agro-hydro systems. With a focus on sustainable agricultural practices, Path4Med aims to achieve near-zero soil and water pollution by combining state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, community engagement, and science-based solutions.
The project operates at the local and regional level, creating Demonstration Sites to test and refine strategies to reduce pollution and support sustainable agriculture. By developing a network of knowledge sharing and practical applications, Path4Med seeks to create lasting positive impacts across Europe. Path4Med’s objectives focus on advancing sustainable agriculture while safeguarding the health of Mediterranean soils and waters.
E-SPFdigit Project
E-SPFdigit aims to develop digital tools, from TRL-5 up until TRL-8, for real- time soil and crop monitoring of contaminants, such as: PFAS, pesticides, heavy metals, and nutrients at pilot sites in Greece and Spain. Advanced sensors coupled with AI-driven data models and machine learning will establish are mote-sensing framework using autonomous robots and drones, while Earth Observation data will enhance predictive insights into soil health. All tools will integrate into a secure Decision Support System (DSS), enabling and informed and automated decisions for sustainable soil management.
tran4num – Transformation for sustainable nutrient supply and management
trans4num is a four-year project funded under the Zero Pollution call as an EU-China international cooperation action on nature-based solutions (NBS) for nutrient management in agriculture.
The project studies how nature-based solutions can be used effectively on real farms and how they can help reduce pollution, improve soil health, and support biodiversity. It also looks at how farmers, researchers, and decision-makers can work together to make these practices more common.
SoilTribes – Establishing, activating, and empowering glocal ecosystems to restore soil values, roles, and connectivity through science, technology, and creative expression.
The SoilTribes project aims at fostering a deep-rooted connection between society and soil, paving the way towards inspiring “back to Earth” narratives and empowering diverse communities to engage in soil stewardship through a shared language, knowledge base, and collective action. The project recognizes that healthy soils are fundamental to food security, climate resilience, and biodiversity, yet they are increasingly threatened by climate change, intensive agriculture, urbanization, and other human-driven pressures. By building multi-actor communities, SoilTribes seeks to bridge scientific knowledge with art and cultural narratives, policy frameworks, and innovative practices to drive sustainable soil management and conservation.