In December 2022, the EC launched the Mission 'A Soil Deal for Europe' aiming to establish and fund 100 Living Labs (LL) and Lighthouses (LH) to drive the transition to healthy soils by 2030, in the framework of the Horizon Europe Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027). The first round of Soil Mission funded Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses are expected to be announced in mid-2024 at which time the PREPSOIL map will be updated to identify the Mission-funded Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouse as well as other sites based on a more detailed taxonomy and in line with the criteria defining Soil Health LLs and LHs established in the Soil Mission Implementation Plan.
In the meantime, the PREPSOIL map aims to provide an overview of Soil Health initiatives across Europe that are active or starting their activities as Living Lab and Lighthouse, in order to facilitate knowledge exchange, networking and consortia creation.
Living Lab
Lighthouse
Living Lab and Lighthouse
Experimentation Site
The map of LL and LH initiatives was initiated by the Soil Mission Support project (GA No. 10100025), which identified 180 initiatives with potential relevance for Living Labs and lighthouses. PREPSOIL aims to review these initiatives, refine the current map and supplement it with further data including those collected through a self-registration form.
This self-registration form includes the PREPSOIL self-assessment tool, designed in alignment with the PREPSOIL taxonomy to support the classification of the mapped initiatives in collaboration with the SOILL-Startup project. While allowing such classification, the tool will also facilitate self-reflection and monitoring for learning of the different initiatives, while supporting the identification of needs of European initiatives for new and improved support services to be delivered in the whole Mission Soil context to enhance the growth and impact of Living Labs and Lighthouses.
The updated classification of Living Labs will be forthcoming.