Monitoring soil health in practice: equipping stakeholders to sample, analyse, and interpret soil health indicators

Expected Outcome:

Activities under this topic will support the objectives of the Mission Soil and contribute to meeting the targets of the EU Soil Strategy for 2030 and the implementation of the Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive. Furthermore, these activities should advance improvement of soil management and environmental performance outlined in the Vision for Agriculture and Food and the Common Agricultural Policy.

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• enhanced reliability and accessibility of soil health data by and for laboratories, land managers, advisors and policymakers;
• improved understanding by land managers, other relevant practitioners and policymakers of the conditions, limitations and uncertainties of soil data and outputs and tools (e.g. datasets, indicators, descriptors, methodologies, pedo-transfer functions) developed by Mission Soil projects and initiatives (among others);
• increased collaboration and interaction among stakeholders, including end-users, around soil heath data issues;
• support the development of standards, norms and reference frameworks as well as national and international guidelines of soil sampling and monitoring and promote best practices.

Scope:

Soil health assessments will be key in the EU, especially with initiatives like the upcoming Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive. Assessments will provide critical data to support adaptive management practices that optimise soil health enhancing competitiveness and resilience.

Trimmed here, the full scope, expected outcomes and award criteria are on the official topic page ↗.