Horizon Europe – Mission Soil Project – SoilWise

More than ever, soil health is an issue which needs attention. Recent assessments state that 60-70% of European soils can be considered unhealthy. The Soil Deal for Europe aims to have 75% of European Union (EU) soils healthy or significantly improved by 2030. Reaching such an ambition requires access to reliable, harmonised soil data, from existing and new data sources. Data and knowledge needs to be collected at local, national and EU levels to allow informed decision-making at all scales to support the Soil Health Law and the EU Soil Strategy.

The project will provide an integrated and actionable access point to scattered and heterogeneous soil data and knowledge in Europe, making them FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). This should improve trust, willingness, and ability to share and re-use soil data and knowledge. In three project development cycles, co-creation and co-validation by multi-stakeholder groups are the centre of project activities.

The SoilWise repository and community are designed to be a starting point and common ground for countries, the European Commission and other stakeholders to jointly guide soil and related spatial policy. An overall aim is to support informed decision-making towards the 2030 goals of the Green Deal, achieve healthy soils in 2050 and ensure broad use of the project by land managers, policy, research and industry.

The overall objective of the project is to make existing and new knowledge and data on soils easily findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable in a long-term knowledge and data repository. The repository will be powered by strategies for soil data and knowledge collection, processing, visualisation and exploitation, following a multiactor co-design and co-validation processes with all key user groups and R&I (Research and Innovation) outcomes.

We aim to build the prototype of a system that connects the data and knowledge of the soil community, make it accessible and tackle recurring challenges and provide solutions that should work for a wide range of stakeholders, for soil and non-soil experts, for data providers and users.

The overall objective is subdivided into 6 sub-objectives:

• To develop and test a prototype for a knowledge and data SWR (SoilWise repository);

• To provide enhanced stakeholder-driven access through DM (Data Management) tools, profiting from a wide range of interfaces, continuous delivery and increased user experience;

• To develop and test a KM (Knowledge Management) component, its workflows and support the integration, access and (re)use of actionable knowledge on soil health;

• To support the population of the SWR by facilitating data and knowledge harmonization;

• To support solutions on the status and health of soils for land managers and other stakeholders to take more informed soil management decisions;

• To discover and verify the potential for new (business) opportunities from improved access and reuse of knowledge and data and added functionality in the repository.

The main activities of the project are divided into seven workpackages (WP):

1. Co-design a user driven SoilWise repository

2. Develop suite of tools and strategy to FAIRness on data

3. Develop suite of tools and strategy for knowledge management

4. Deliver a populated & validated SoilWise repository

5. Identify, demonstrate and assess user cases

6. Engage stakeholders to maximize impact & outreach

7. Manage project & maintain ethics requirements

ISRIC is WP-lead for WP1 and is in the lead for tasks in WP1, WP2 and WP6. ISRIC will be involved in all workpackages as a research partner. In these roles we will support the project with our knowledge and experience on soils, soil data and knowledge, soil data standards, soil information systems and workflows, and the application of soil data in different user contexts.

The project offers ISRIC a unique opportunity to work with a group of experts on soil, data, knowledge and soil knowledge and data, with European stakeholders and to co-develop open-source components, tools, standards, procedures, governance that can be useful for our and other projects around the globe to address pressing societal issues.

• User stories to describe how stakeholders want to interact with the SWR

• Prototype of SWR architecture

• Governance models for SWR

• Evaluation of SWR for meeting stakeholder needs

• Integrated data management components

• Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication (DEC) and Capacity Building Plan and Report

ISRIC is in the lead for WP1 which objective is to co-design the building blocks of the SWR. Specific input for this process will be the collection and co-prioritisation of user stories that describe how stakeholders will want to interact with the repository. For example: As a soil expert, when I receive a question on soil management of soils on volcanic slopes, I would like to share the answer with a wider community than just the questioner, otherwise it’s an inefficient use of resources. Where and how can I best share with optimal impact?.

These user stories will support the design and development of the repository. This WP will also deliver a high-level prototype architecture of SoilWise in the first 6 months and innovative governance models for the repository and adjacent fields and manage the project rolling plan activities that will check whether the repository is indeed delivering the realisation of the user stories.

In WP2 on data management tools and standards, ISRIC is in the lead for task 2.3 AL and ML for data findability and accessibility which is part of deliverable on Developed & integrated DM components. In WP6, ISRIC is in the lead for task 6.2 Fostering network of relevant project, initiatives and institutions which is part of the deliverable DEC and Capacity Building Plan and Report. 

• Eigen vermogen van het instituut voor landbouw - en visserijonderzoek (EV-ILVO) Coordinator

• Stichting International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC – World Soil Information) Partner

• Stichting Wageningen Research (WR) NL Partner

• Wageningen University (WU) NL Partner

• Masarykova univerzita (MU) CZ Partner

• Biosense Institute - Research and Development Institute for Information Technologies in Biosystems (BIOS) RS Partner

• Leibnitz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung e.V. (ZALF) DE Partner

• Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l'Analisi dell'Economia Agraria (CREA) IT Partner

• VLAAMSE GEWEST (VLO) BE Partner

• Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (INRAE) FRPartner

• Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (C.I.R.A.D.) FR Partner

• wetransform GmbH (WE) DE Partner

• Gaia Epicheirein Anonymi Etaireia Psifiakon Ypiresion (GAIA) GR Partner

• neuropublic ae pliroforikis & epikoinonion (NP) GR Partner

• European Landowners' Organization (ELO) BE Partner

The project receives funding from the European Union’s HORIZON Innovation Actions 2022 under grant agreement No 101112838

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