The Mission Soil project LILAS4SOILS (Living Labs in the Mediterranean and Southern EU for the Healthy Future of European Soils) has launched a call for contributions to help farmers implement carbon farming practies and improve the quality of their soil.
The present report provides an overall picture of the status of environment and climate - air quality, emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases - (GHG), forests, soil and marine environment in Ukraine. The analysis is based on available studies by JRC and other sources. However, the report does not cover all environmental areas as completeness and quality of data varies across the different topics. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has exacerbated pre-existing challenges related to environmental monitoring and the enforcement of environmental regulations, further complicating this assessment.
The EUSO Soil Degradation Dashboard is EUSO’s main tool to monitor and report on the state of soil degradation at EU-level. The Dashboard was updated with the addition of country profiles and a correlation matrix. The country profiles provide an overview of the percentages of degraded soils per indicator in each of the EU Member States. The correlation matrix shows the strength and direction of the relationship between two individual soil degradation indicators.
The first part of the EUSO Stakeholders Forum will be an online event on 12 June, focussing on the topic "soil health and EU competitiveness". During this event, case studies from the private sector will show how healthy soils can promote competitiveness in terms of the three pillars: a) closing the innovation gap; b) decarbonisation and competitiveness; and c) reducing excessive dependencies. The event includes presentations from the biotechnology sector, agribusiness, banking-financial sector, remediation industry, start-ups, carbon farming and retail industry.
The 5th EUSO Stakeholder Forum will be held in two parts: online on 12 June, and inperson on 9 September. The online event on 12 June will focus on the topic “How can healthy soils increase EU competitiveness?”. During this event, case studies from the pri‐ vate sector will show how healthy soils can promote competitiveness in terms of the three pillars: a) closing the innovation gap; b) decarbonisation and competitiveness; and c) reducing excessive dependencies. Detailed agenda and registration link com‐ ing soon.
The EU H2020 HoliSoils project (2021-2025), led by the National Resources Institute Finland (Luke), is advancing research and developing tools for holistic forest soil management in Europe. ISRIC – World Soil Information is enhancing spatial data on European forest soils within the project.
The second part of the EUSO Stakeholders Forum will be an in-person event on the 9th of September at the EUROSOIL conference. The in-person event will focus on innovative advancements and breakthroughs within the Mission Soil projects. It aims to bring together Mission Soil projects and the broad Soil Sciences community. Mission Soil project researchers are invited to submit an abstract highlighting new results and innovations.
Soil Literacy workshop
The workshop aimed to explore how the EU Soil Strategy and the Mission Soil can
really drive a revolution in soil awareness by taking soil literacy and citizen
engagement to a new level. The meeting was both an opportunity to share and
explore best practices from a range of diverse perspectives and targeted
stakeholders, as well as reflections towards a future roadmap of possible actions.
This report highlights the main activities and outcomes of the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) from 2024. Throughout 2024, the EUSO has taken up its role to be the principal provider of soil-related data and policy support at the EU-level. The Annual Report includes an overview of the policy support provided by the EUSO as well as the activities regarding EU-wide soil monitoring and sharing data and knowledge about EU soils. The report also includes other highlights, such as the ‘The state of soils in Europe’ report, the 47 scientific papers, and 15 datasets published by EUSO in 2024.
Earlier this year, we hosted an EU Policy Lab event for colleagues in the European Commission and especially the new Members of Cabinet to make a winning case for how policymaking can benefit from foresight in the new mandate, while also giving them the chance to test some of our foresight tools themselves. Here are some of the highlights.
Delivering the EU Green Deal - Progress towards targets
Microbial Bioindicators for Monitoring the Impact of Emerging Contaminants on Soil Health in the European Framework
Empirical estimation of saturated soil-paste electrical conductivity in the EU using pedotransfer functions and Quantile Regression Forests
Soil pollution is a significant environmental and health concern in Europe, with potential links to cancer incidence. The Exploratory Research project “Understanding the links between SOil pollution and CancEr” (SOLACE)” aims to investigate the complex relationships between soil properties, pollution, land use and human health.
Textural data for all soil samples from the LUCAS SOIL campaigns. This data from the LUCAS SOIL campaigns of 2009/2012, 2015 and 2018 was assembled in a single file which includes the particle size distribution (clay, silt, sand) and the textural classification according to USDA, FAO and INTERNATIONAL. The datafile refers to 27,819 sample points.
This dataset includes the a) Soil organic carbon risk index b) SOC fractions predicted by visible near-infrared c) the mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) saturation. This repository accompanies the Nature Communication publication and can be used to access the results, data and code.
A new JRC report to enhance EU automotive and permanent magnet value chains competitiveness
Towards sustainable food systems: developing a monitoring framework for the EU
