A Soil Deal for Europe

What are EU Missions?
Missions are a new instrument under Horizon Europe  to bring concrete solutions to some of the EU’s greatest challenges. The five EU Missions aim to support Europe’s transformation into a greener, healthier, more inclusive, and resilient continent. TP Organics, the European Technology Platform for organic food and farming hosted and co-founded by IFOAM Organics Europe, follows the mission ‘Soil Deal for Europe’, which aims for at least 75% of all soils in the EU to be healthy by 2030. The proposed mission combines research and innovation, education and training, investments and the demonstration of good practices using “living labs” (networks of actors for place-based co-creation) and “lighthouses” (places to showcase good practices). A network of 100 living labs and lighthouses to co-create knowledge, test solutions and demonstrate their value in real-life conditions will lead the transition to healthy soils. The Mission was officially launched at the end of September 2021.

First round of applications now open!
The first Missions Work Programme (2021-2022) was published at the end of 2021. It contains 8 calls to support the implementation of the mission, from incentives and business models for soil health to “Next generation soil advisors”. Deadline to submit proposals is 24 March 2022. If you are planning to apply for a call for the Soil Mission, or if you are interested in joining a consortium, you are invited to respond to a short Expression of Interest survey by the end of January. The results and contacts will be shared with all participants to help you find project partners/consortia.

First living labs will be funded through annual calls under the Horizon Europe Missions Work Programme 2023-2024 (expected to be published early in 2023). TP Organics is currently preparing a position paper with organic research needs for healthy soils in Europe.

Mission Board call for experts
The European Commission launched a call for experts to join the five Mission Boards, with up to 15 independent experts advising on the implementation of the EU Missions, including the ‘Soil Deal for Europe’. The main tasks of the new Mission Boards will be to promote the EU Missions by raising citizens’ awareness and to advise on the Mission’s implementation plan, building on the work of the first phase Mission Boards (in charge until December 2021).

Why apply?
The Mission Board members from across Europe and beyond will have diverse profiles, from business, public administration, science, culture, citizen engagement, and civil society organisations. If you want to help implement the Missions and devise, demonstrate, implement and upscale solutions on the ground, apply by 2 February 2022, 17:00 CET by submitting your application in the online survey-management system, EUSurvey.

EU Missions Info Days
The EU Missions Info Days will take place on 18 and 19 January 2022 and can be followed online (no registration needed). On Day 1, from 15:40-17:35 CET, participants can learn more about preparing and submitting a successful proposal. The Soil Mission will be presented on Day 2, from 14:00-16:00 CET.