PREPSOIL: Empowering Soil Living Labs and Lighthouses
As the PREPSOIL project concludes in June 2025, we reflect on four years of impactful work supporting the EU Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe. The project has played a vital role in equipping Soil Living Lab (LL) and Lighthouse (LH) initiatives with the knowledge, tools, and frameworks needed to grow, collaborate, and thrive.
Through targeted activities and co-creation with stakeholders, PREPSOIL has delivered a suite of practical resources to strengthen the development, maturity, and long-term sustainability of soil-related initiatives across Europe.
Key Resources Developed by PREPSOIL
PREPSOIL Online Atlas
An interactive atlas showcasing Living Labs, Lighthouses, and related initiatives across Europe—enhancing visibility and collaboration.
Living Lab Taxonomy
A structured classification system that helps define and compare LLs and LHs working on soil challenges, aligned with Mission Soil priorities.
Business Model Canvas & Catalogue
A customized framework for defining value propositions, partnerships, and sustainability strategies—paired with real examples from active LLs.
See also the recordings of the Smart Financing for LLs and LHs (PART 1 and PART 2)
Toolbox for Soil Living Lab Growth
A practical collection of templates, guides, and methods to support every stage of a Soil Living Lab’s development, from planning to impact.
What are Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses?
Living Labs are user-centred, place-based, and transdisciplinary research and innovation ecosystems, which involve land managers, scientists, and other relevant partners, at regional or sub-regional level, in systemic research and codesign, testing, monitoring and evaluation of solutions, in real-life settings, to improve their effectiveness for soil health and accelerate adoption. The Soil Health Living Labs are tasked with coordinating Experimental Sites, which involve conducting experiments across various locations such as farms, forests, and industrial areas. These sites have then the potential to evolve into Lighthouses.
Lighthouses are places for demonstration of solutions, training and communication that are exemplary in their performance in terms of soil health improvement. They are local sites (one farm, one forest exploitation, one industrial site, one urban city green area, etc.) that can be included in a living lab area or be situated outside a living lab area.
For a deeper understanding of Living Labs and Lighthouses within the framework of Mission Soil, please refer to the Mission Implementation Plan. You can learn more about the role of Living Labs and Lighthouses in the transition towards healthy soils in the video below, produced by the SMS project.