The Commission has received 78 high quality proposals under a €95 million EU Soil Mission call. Evaluations are ongoing.

The Commission received 78 proposals in response to the Horizon Europe Mission Soil call with a deadline of 27 September.

With the 2022 soil mission call for proposals, the Commission seeks to advance soil literacy and societal appreciation for the vital functions of soil health across Europe. It aims to ensure that land managers, consumers and society at large are better informed and work together to take effective action on soil health.

Applicants to the call had an opportunity to submit proposals in ten different topics explaining how their research could contribute to, among others, improving soil biodiversity, fostering soil and land restoration and decontamination, or supporting carbon farming. An important task will also be to raise awareness of the value of soils and soil health to different societal actors, including citizens.

The total available budget in this call is €95 million from Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme. 16 projects are expected to be funded.

Next steps

The evaluation of the eligible proposals has started with the support of external independent evaluators drawn from the Commission’s database of experts.

Applicants will be informed of the results of their application between December 2022 and January 2023. The funded projects should start working as of June 2023.

The Mission: ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ and Horizon Europe

Research and innovation is crucial to co-create knowledge and to demonstrate scale up and replicate existing and new solutions.

Horizon Europe will invest €320 million from 2021 to 2023 to support the implementation of the Soil Mission. REA is at the forefront of its implementation, managing EU-funded research and innovation projects that work on solutions to the EU’s current soil challenges.

Source: European Research Executive Agency I News (https://bit.ly/3gdXkjc)