Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The Mission Soil promotes the use of living labs as an innovative approach to research and innovation in soil health. Living labs bring together multiple actors in real-life sites at local or regional levels to co-create and test solutions, with the goal of improving soil health and governance and reaching 100 living labs and lighthouses by 2030.
Soil health living labs are long-term collaborations involving 10–20 sites (such as farms, forests, urban green areas, or industrial lands) where soil challenges are addressed and monitored under real-life conditions. Depending on context, fewer sites may also be accepted. Lighthouses are exemplary sites that demonstrate solutions, provide training, and communicate best practices; they can be part of a living lab or independent.
Projects are expected to initiate or strengthen participatory processes, with durations adapted to the longer timescales of soil processes. By working together across living labs, actors can compare results, exchange practices, replicate solutions, and accelerate the transition towards healthy soils.
Detailed Call Description
More specifically, each of the proposals should:
- Support the setup of four to five living labs at regional or local level in the Continental, Boreal or Alpine biogeographical region, to work together on common shared soil health challenge(s). Proposals should clearly indicate which of one of these three biogeographical regions they focus on, and should establish the majority of the living labs within the chosen biogeographical region. However, the remaining living labs can be still located in other biogeographical regions outside of the one selected. The living labs should work on relevant soil health challenges in the selected biogeographical region. The living labs should be located in at least three different Member States and/or Associated Countries. Proposals should explain the rationale and mechanism for cooperation within and across the living labs and explain how the work undertaken will contribute to one or more of the Mission’s specific objectives. Proposals with all living labs located in brownfield areas are excluded from this topic as a dedicated topic is opened in this work programme (HORIZON-MISS-2025-SOIL-01-02: Living Labs for soil remediation and green redevelopment of brownfields).
- Establish an interdisciplinary, participatory and multi-actor approach in the living labs to co-design, co-develop, and co-implement locally adapted solutions for the common shared soil health challenge(s) taking into account relevant soil health drivers and pressures. Proposed solutions should be adapted to the different environmental, socio-economic and cultural contexts in which the living labs are operating.
- Establish for each living lab a baseline of the soil conditions to allow for an accurate co-assessment of the changes in the different sites over time, and to monitor soil health improvements. The set of soil health indicators/descriptors presented in the proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience should be used, as a basis; proposals may complement with additional indicators depending on the soil health challenge(s) addressed, pedoclimatic conditions, land use, etc.”
- Monitor and evaluate the effects of the proposed solutions on soil health and associated ecosystem services, demonstrating their viability – technical, social, economic, cultural and environmental – scalability and transferability to diverse contexts.
- Identify sites that demonstrate high performance and that may be converted into lighthouses. This can be performed both at proposal stage or later on, during the living lab operation.
- Propose strategies (e.g., financial, organisational) to ensure the long-term sustainability of the established living labs beyond the Horizon Europe funding. Strategies should include the identification of possible business models and actions involving a mix of public or private funding schemes, financial instruments, cooperation with local authorities, engagement of social economy entities, social enterprises, business communities, SMEs, as well as attracting investors and entrepreneurs.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Expected EU contribution per project: €12.00 million.
Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties to facilitate active involvement of smaller actors (e.g. land managers and owners such as farmers, SMEs or civil society) in one or more of the living labs of the project. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants (further to calls or, if duly justified, without a call for proposals). The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is €60.000.
Thematic Categories
- Agriculture - Farming - Forestry
- Agriculture - Food
- Environment and Climate Change
- Industry
- Land Development
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Rural development
Eligibility for Participation
- Associations
- Businesses
- Educational Institutions
- Farmers Unions
- Farmers, Agriculturalists
- Large Enterprises
- Legal Entities
- Local Authorities
- NGOs
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Producer Associations
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Semi-governmental organisations
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
- Training Centres
Eligibility For Participation Notes
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects.
In line with the nature of living labs, projects must adopt the multi-actor approach. The actors involved in each living lab may vary, based on its unique characteristics and may include, among others, researchers, landowners or land managers, industry representatives (e.g., SMEs), public administrators and civil society representatives (e.g., consumers, local residents, environmental NGOs, youth organisations).
Proposals must apply the multi-actor approach. See definition of the multi-actor approach in the introduction to this work programme part.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Research and Innovation Foundation
Address: 29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia, P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/
Contact Person:
Mr. Christakis Theocharous
Scientific Officer A’
Email: ctheocharous@research.org.cy