Apply now: Transform European Forests with Soil Health Living Labs

This initiative focuses on the creation of participatory, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary living labs to co-create and implement economically viable soil health solutions; improving soil health monitoring and increasing the availability of high-quality, standardized soil data at local and regional levels; generating practice-oriented knowledge for land managers and users to encourage adoption of effective soil health solutions; and informing policymakers about local needs regarding soil health to design more effective and economically sustainable policies.

Forests play a critical role in global environmental protection by supporting biodiversity, preventing erosion, regulating floods, and mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration. In Europe, nearly 40% of land is forested, with over 90% classified as managed forests. Maintaining and enhancing soil functions in these areas is crucial for productivity and long-term resilience, and for supporting a sustainable forest bioeconomy. Natural and semi-natural lands, including protected areas and national parks, are vulnerable to degradation and require monitoring to ensure conservation. Living labs are being deployed as a novel approach to research and innovation, enabling multi-actor collaboration in real-life sites to co-create soil health solutions and achieve large-scale impacts on soil governance.

Projects funded under this topic are expected to establish four to five living labs working on shared soil health challenges relevant to either managed forests or natural/semi-natural lands, spanning at least three different Member States or Associated Countries. Each living lab will adopt an interdisciplinary and participatory approach to co-design, co-develop, and co-implement locally adapted solutions, while monitoring baseline soil conditions and improvements using standardized indicators. Projects will identify high-performing sites that can serve as lighthouses, exemplifying successful solutions, and engage with initiatives such as SOILL to assess and support their recognition. Strategies for long-term sustainability beyond Horizon Europe funding, including financial and organizational measures and potential business models, will be proposed to ensure continued operation and impact.

The initiative has a budget of 24,000,000 EUR for 2026, with contributions of 12,000,000 EUR. Eligible participants include any legal entity, regardless of place of establishment, including entities from non-associated third countries and international organizations, provided the Horizon Europe regulations and specific topic conditions are met. Participants must register in the Participant Register to obtain a participant identification code and validation before signing the grant agreement.

For more information, visit EC.