Project
Soil Mission Support
The EU Mission Board Soil Health and Food has made recommendations on innovations in agriculture and soil in its report “Caring for Soil is Caring for Life”. Following on from this, this Soil Mission Support (SMS) project is developing a Roadmap for Research & Innovation in the field of soil and land use and soil management in a co-creation process together with actors and networks in NL and EU and based on its EU inventory of knowledge needs. to support the implementation of the EU Mission Board's next steps.
This SMS Roadmap presents an overarching set of priorities that are common to the identified soil and land challenges as described in its report. In addition, the Roadmap also contains priorities specific to one or more of the challenges and in particular in the field of Lighthouses and Living Labs. The Dutch business community can join this via SMS. Over the next 2 years, the SMS project will, in consultation with the EU REA and the Mission Board, choose its priorities and specific actions with a view to expeditious implementation of the recommendations and taking into account the wishes of the actors
Abstract (UK):
SMS - Soil Mission Support: Towards a European research and innovation roadmap on soils and land management Soil health is vital for the delivery of food, energy, and biomaterials, as well as climate action, ecosystem services and biodiversity. Pressure on land and soil is growing due to competing demands for land and biobased products. A sustainable soil management that satisfies the increasing demand and avoids soil degradation requires coordinated R&I. This project will employ a multi-actor approach to create an effective framework for action in the wider area of soil health and land management by coordinating efforts and pooling resources, by developing a coherent portfolio of R&I activities and by identifying ‘flagships’ to demonstrate solutions.
The CSA will bring together the main players in soil health and management in a transdisciplinary approach. Planned activities include the analysis of the needs for R&I on soil and land management as expressed through stakeholder/citizen consultation and on-going research projects, the identification of gaps, priority areas and types of action for intervention as well as the proposition of methodologies to monitor and review a portfolio of soil related R&I activities. The action fields sprawl from agriculture and forestry to spatial planning, land remediation, climate action, and disaster control.
Outcomes and results will be:
- A stakeholder-based, co-created roadmap to support the mission on soil health and food.
- Improved coordination with existing activities in Europe and globally, thereby raising visibility and effectiveness of R&I funding.
- Identification of and learning from potential "flagships" for testing and demonstrating solutions in order to simultaneously satisfy competing demands of soil use.
With its activities, the CSA will support the EC and the mission board in delivering the objectives of the mission “Soil Health and Food”.