Joint demonstration of solutions to build soil resilience to extreme weather events and support food security

Expected Outcome

Activities under this topic will support the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food, the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, including the implementation of the EU Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive, the EU Adaptation Strategy, the EU Water Resilience Strategy, and the forthcoming European Climate Adaptation Plan.

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• enhanced monitoring of soils at subnational level (e.g. regions and municipalities) leading to an overall improved soil resilience against extreme weather events, particularly in terms of soils’ capacity to withstand and recover from floods, droughts, heatwaves and broader temperature fluctuations;
• tailored soil management practices and solutions that improve soil health are adopted, promoting sustainable land management, enhancing food system resilience, including food security[1], and strengthening the overall resilience of agricultural systems to current and future climate extreme events.

Scope

Developing and scaling practical solutions to enhance soils’ resilience to extreme weather events is crucial for climate change adaptation. As extreme weather events like droughts, heavy rainfall and flooding, heatwaves and other temperature anomalies (e.g. unseasonal frosts) become more frequent, widespread and severe, they pose significant threats to soil health, agricultural productivity, and food security at large. This is due to, inter alia, soil erosion, nutrient leaching, increased salinisation, loss of soil organic carbon, reduction or loss of microbial activity, waterlogging and oxygen depletion, depending on the type of extreme weather event considered. Strengthening soils’ resilience at farm and landscape levels, considering also the context, e.g., in terms of governance (rules and institutions), is vital to cope with these challenges. Creating a framework that suits different pedoclimatic conditions and regions should help ensure that the best approaches are put in place to maintain food security and promote sustainable farming practices, and that overall landscape resilience to these events is enhanced.

Proposals should address all of the following aspects:

• develop, test and demonstrate a range of solutions, including agroecology and nature-based solutions, that improve soils’ resilience to extreme weather events, while applying a systems-thinking approach and addressing interactions across farm, landscape, and governance levels. Describe how such solutions would support food security[1], for example by preserving soil productivity and reducing yield volatility caused by extreme weather events, thereby ensuring more stable, affordable, safe and nutritious food supply;
• develop and deploy an integrated transdisciplinary framework to facilitate replication and scale-up of the above solutions. Enhanced involvement of relevant public authorities and stakeholders (including to integrate local knowledge) at different management levels, from farm to landscape levels, and exploring innovative and scalable business models that support resilience of food systems and food security also in the long term;
• develop a replicable methodology to assess the impact of extreme weather conditions on soil ecosystem services, including water retention and quality, across different regions. The framework should be designed with, and for the uptake of local authorities, stakeholders, and land managers to assess and manage the impacts on soil services in the area;
• disseminate good practices to key stakeholders and practitioners to support informed decision-making and adaptive land management.

Demonstration sites and related activities

The Soil and Adaptation Missions encourage collaborations between regional and local authorities facing similar challenges and considers this to be a very efficient approach to secure a large impact. Therefore, the demonstration activities of the proposals:

• must take place in the territory of at least 3 different regional or local authorities, each established in a different Member State or Associated Country;
• should already identify at least 3 “replicating” regional or local authorities from 3 different Member States or Associated Countries, interested in reapplying the lessons learnt (totally, partially or with the required adjustments) in their territories. For the replication, the consortium could include one or more partners that would provide support for the technical exchanges and the knowledge uptake in the “replicating” regions or local authorities. Replicating regions are not necessarily expected to carry out on the ground activities already in the course of the project. However, replicating regions should at least prepare the theoretical framework for replicating the successful solutions, and explore means to fund the implementation of those solutions.

Links to the Missions and to other projects and initiatives

Proposals should include a mechanism and the resources to establish operational links and collaboration with the Mission Adaptation’s Implementation Platform (including on monitoring). Projects funded under this topic will be expected to participate in the Adaptation Mission Community of Practice.

Applicants should acknowledge these requests and already account for them in their proposal, making adequate provisions in terms of resources and budget to engage and collaborate with the Missions.

Proposals should build (when relevant) upon existing and emerging knowledge[3] and solutions designed and developed from previous projects and from initiatives[4] addressing the nexus between climate change adaptation, soil and food, funded by EU and national programmes, in particular the European Union Framework programmes for Research and Innovation (such as Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe under their different pillars and clusters), and the LIFE programme.

Projects must apply the multi-actor approach to ensure the reliability, relevance, and societal impact of their outcomes by involving a diverse range of stakeholders throughout the entire project lifecycle, promoting co-creation and facilitating the acceptance and adoption of innovative solutions[5].

Proposals should also demonstrate a route towards open access, longevity, sustainability and interoperability of knowledge and outputs through close collaboration with the EU Soil Observatory and the SoilWise project.

This action supports the follow-up to the July 2023 Communication on EU Missions assessment.

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Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.

[1] Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (FAO, 1996)

[2] Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (FAO, 1996)

[3] Such as from projects funded under HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-03: Increasing environmental resilience through a better knowledge and management of the soil-water nexus, HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-01-01: Testing and demonstrating transformative solutions increasing climate resilience of the agriculture and/or forestry sector, HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-OCEAN-SOIL-01-01: Joint demonstration of an integrated approach to increasing landscape water retention capacity at regional scale, and other relevant projects funded under Cluster 5 and Mission Adaptation.

[4] Such as, when published, the upcoming Guidance on Climate Resilient Landscape by the European Commission.

[5] See the introduction of the Mission Soil work programme part