Deadline Date: April 14, 2026
The European Commission is funding innovative living labs across Alpine and Atlantic regions to improve soil health through participatory, interdisciplinary, and locally adapted solutions.
The focus areas of this initiative include establishing four to five living labs in either the Alpine or the Atlantic biogeographical regions, ensuring the majority are within the chosen region and located in at least three different Member States or Associated Countries. The living labs should operate collaboratively on shared soil health challenges, establishing interdisciplinary, participatory, and multi-actor approaches to co-design, co-develop, and co-implement locally adapted solutions. Proposals must include the creation of a baseline of soil conditions for accurate monitoring, assess the technical, social, economic, cultural, and environmental viability of solutions, identify high-performing sites for potential lighthouse designation, and propose strategies for long-term sustainability beyond Horizon Europe funding.
The total budget allocated for this topic in 2026 is €24,000,000, with contributions expected to be around €12,000,000. This funding supports the establishment of living labs, the monitoring of soil health improvements, stakeholder engagement, and the co-creation of sustainable soil health solutions across multiple sites and countries.
Living labs are envisioned as long-term collaborations among multiple actors across real-life sites, such as farms, forest holdings, urban green areas, and industrial sites, to address soil health challenges across different land uses. Lighthouse sites represent exemplary locations for demonstrating successful soil health solutions, training, and communication. Projects are expected to either initiate new participatory processes or build on existing ones, complementing the Mission Soil network and delivering unique results. By comparing results, exchanging good practices, and validating methodologies across living labs, the initiative aims to accelerate the transition toward improved soil health.
Proposals should monitor improvements in soil health and ecosystem services using standardized indicators, supplemented by additional metrics tailored to local conditions and challenges. The solutions developed within living labs must be adaptable to diverse environmental, socio-economic, and cultural contexts and demonstrate potential for scalability and transferability. Financial and organizational strategies should ensure the long-term continuation of living labs, incorporating public and private funding, cooperation with local authorities, engagement with social enterprises and SMEs, and attraction of investors and entrepreneurs.
The expected outcomes include enhanced capacities for participatory, interdisciplinary research and innovation, improved soil health monitoring and data availability, greater dissemination of practice-oriented knowledge to land managers and users, and increased awareness among policymakers about local soil health needs, informing more effective policies that consider economic sustainability. The projects also contribute to the Common Agricultural Policy, the European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, the proposed Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, biotechnology and biomanufacturing initiatives, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
For more information, visit EC.
