iCOSHELLs

Challenge

In Europe, 60-70% of soils are classified as unhealthy due to poor soil management practices, pollution, intensive agriculture, and urbanisation. Regenerating a plot of unhealthy soil can take hundreds or even thousands of years. To accelerate soil restoration and maintain its health while aligning with EU policies, it is crucial to place people and end users at the heart of this transformation and engage all stakeholders, from researchers and technology providers to farmers and landowners.

Solution

iCOSHELLs will establish six Soil Health Living Labs (SHELLs) in Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, and Sweden. These will play a key role in ensuring end-user participation in decision-making and the effective implementation of actions for soil health restoration. The SHELLs will be part of a network designed to foster greater cooperation among all stakeholders involved in soil health, initially at a European level and, ideally, on a global scale.

Impacts

iCOSHELLs is committed to contributing to the Mission Soil goal of creating 100 Living Labs across the EU, by establishing six new operational labs covering different geographical and climatic zones. Additionally, by involving diverse members of the quadruple helix and adopting a bottom-up approach, iCOSHELLs will promote a multidisciplinary perspective on soil health. This will facilitate the implementation of new policies, practices, and management tools to improve soil quality at a European level, while also addressing the local needs of different scenarios.