Living Labs provide access to cutting-edge technology and offer free testing environments, empowering innovation and accelerating the development of new solutions. They serve as experimentation, innovation, and demonstration spaces, bridging the gap between research communities and productive, social environments. By offering both physical and digital spaces, Living Labs foster social cohesion and support corporate social responsibility project-based activities, enabling diverse stakeholders to collaborate and drive impactful technological advancements. This holistic approach not only accelerates technological progress but also enhances community engagement and societal benefits
Common to all LLs
Public Value
Living Labs offer a dynamic platform for pioneering climate-smart, sustainable soil management practices, essential for mitigating and adapting to climate change. By fostering collaborative innovation, Living Labs raise awareness and deepen knowledge about soil health, ensuring long-term environmental and social benefits. This approach stabilizes and increases local, healthy food production, enhancing climate resilience and supporting sustainable practices. Engaging stakeholders at all levels, Living Labs harness collective expertise to develop and adapt solutions tailored to local constraints, promoting soil biodiversity and conservation
Common to soil LLs
Public Value
Agricultural LLs accelerate the development of new solutions to tackle soil health problems by bringing together innovative farmers and citizens, researchers and companies. Solutions can for instance be new climate smart sustainable soil management practices to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change, or adaptations of existing practices needed to deal with local constraints. Further, a structured collaboration with potential investors as well as regulators and authorities fosters a faster development and upscaling of solutions and removal of barriers of their implementation
Agricultural land use type
Public Value
LLs accelerate the development of innovative solutions to soil health challenges by uniting farmers, citizens, researchers, and companies. This collaboration fosters fair and sustainable, regionally-produced food, while enhancing soil health and crucial ecosystem services such as climate change mitigation, flood prevention, and erosion control. By promoting agroecology and beneficial soil health practices, Living Labs boost soil biodiversity and fertility, reducing soil degradation in arable lands, grasslands, and forests. This approach not only creates sustainable livelihoods for farmers, especially younger generations, but also drives sustainable forest soil management, ensuring a resilient and healthy ecosystem for future generations
Agricultural land use type
Public Value
Forestry LLs have the potential to accelerate the development towards sustainable forest soil management by finding and developing solutions to tackle soil health issues. LLs do this by bringing together innovative forest owners, researchers, companies and citizens. LLs will provide a platform for all levels of stakeholders to contribute with knowledge, experience and solutions. Solutions can for instance be new climate smart sustainable soil management practices to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change or to conserve soil biodiversity. Adaptation of existing practices needed to deal with local contraints
Forestry land use type
Public Value
LLs accelerate the development of innovative solutions to soil health challenges by uniting farmers, citizens, researchers, and companies. This collaboration fosters fair and sustainable, regionally-produced food, while enhancing soil health and crucial ecosystem services such as climate change mitigation, flood prevention, and erosion control. By promoting agroecology and beneficial soil health practices, Living Labs boost soil biodiversity and fertility, reducing soil degradation in arable lands, grasslands, and forests. This approach not only creates sustainable livelihoods for farmers, especially younger generations, but also drives sustainable forest soil management, ensuring a resilient and healthy ecosystem for future generations
Forestry land use type
Public Value
Brownfield land is extremely important for environmental and ecosystem quality and human health. Involving citizens, municipal administration, planners, land developers, researchers, and environmetal officers in the LL co-creation processses might help to optimize the re-use of land in a way that involves soil information, soil ecosystem services, and risk management in the planning
(Post-)Industrial land use type
Public Value
In many (post-) industrial regions, a substantial part of the land is still used as arable land. Elevated soil contaminants might pose a risk of food contamination. Therefore, alternative agricultural production and soil management practices must be proposed to farmers. They can be effectively developed only in a co-creation process with farmers and advisors to address environmental and socio-economic barriers the transformation might face
(Post-)Industrial land use type
Public Value
Urban LLs may transform city landscapes by revitalizing soil health through innovative green infrastructure and community engagement. The LL can create sustainable, biodiverse urban environments that enhance water management, boost local food production, and foster healthier communities. By partnering with different stakeholders, cities can improve their resilience to climate change, increase property values, and provide their residents with attractive, functional green spaces that support both environmental and social well-being
(Peri-)Urban land use type
Public Value
