To reach the targets of the Paris Agreement commitments for land degradation neutrality, for biodiversity, and to support the EU Green Deal, Europe needs to join its research and innovation forces on soil carbon with those around the globe in a coordinated manner. To scale up efforts for conserving and increasing soil carbon stocks and harness the co-benefits for climate change mitigation and adaptation, soil health and food security international coordination of research efforts is essential. In this context the EC supported a 1st Coordination action (CIRCASA) led by INRAE which brought together over 100 key stakeholders and 500 scientists from around the world who formalised an interest in establishing an International Research Consortium (IRC) on Soil Carbon built around an initial strategic research and innovation agenda (SRIA) focusing on agricultural soils. Operationalising the IRC requires further mobilization of the international community of stakeholders working on agricultural soil carbon but also other land uses and therefore expanding the initial SRIA as well as developing with international funding bodies an implementation plan and a central knowledge platform offering services to this community. The main goal of ORCaSa is therefore to launch and roll out the initial operational phases of the IRC on Soil Carbon so that by 2024 the IRC has established an international position as the coordinator of soil carbon research and innovation and related issues at global level offering a unique SRIA and implementation plan, supporting knowledge platform and enable the preparation of a disruptive low cost international recognized MRV system. To reach this overall goal, ORCaSa brings together European partners and 6 regional nodes covering the 5 continents around an ambitious 3-year work plan working hand in hand with the international every step of the way.

CURIOSOIL ambition is to trigger Soil Curiosity and create connections between people and soil. In line with the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”, CURIOSOIL aims to contribute to transforming the way soil is valued, perceived, taught and communicated. The project will build upon actual knowledge and will work to change the vision of soil from mere substrate to an ecosystem that should be researched and protected. This will be achieved through the development of multisensorial Soil Experiences to raise soil literacy, building of a Soil Optimism narrative and through the co-creation of a set of educational products, curriculum standards, and teacher’s training programmes. The co-design and multi-actor approach will promote student and citizen engagement in the Mission Soil as well as in other European, national, and international soil health initiatives and will incentivise behavioural change towards an increased perception of soil value and its sustainable use. CURIOSOIL will promote multilingualism and work in soil educational settings across 15 European countries. In order to address the expected outcomes and deliver impact beyond the project’s lifetime, CURIOSOIL will work across four impact pathways: IP1. Triggering soil curiosity; IP2. Prototyping multiple educational journeys to increase soil literacy; IP3. Empowering communities and initiatives dedicated to soil education; IP4. Influence policymaking through a soil optimism narrative.

More than ever, soil health is an issue, as recent assessments state that 60-70% of European soils can be considered unhealthy. The Soil Deal for Europe aims to have 75% of EU soils healthy or significantly improved by 2030. Reaching such an ambition requires, among others, access to reliable, harmonised existing and new data and knowledge collected at local, national and EU levels to allow informed decision-making at all scales to support the Soil Health Law and the EU Soil Strategy. SoilWise will provide an integrated and actionable access point to scattered and heterogeneous soil data and knowledge in Europe, making them FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) and improve trust, willingness, and ability to share and re-use soil data and knowledge. In three project development cycles, co-creation and co-validation by multi-stakeholder groups are the centre of project activities. SoilWise recognises existing workflows and repositories for specific user needs and aims to work with them to enhance their discoverability, approachability and interconnection. An open, modular, scalable and extensible knowledge and data repository building on existing and new technologies will be provided while respecting data ownership, access policies and privacy. AI- and ML- techniques will be employed to interlink scattered data and knowledge, automatise the processes, infer new knowledge and increase FAIRness. SoilWise applies infrastructure thinking instead of project thinking to design a repository for at least a decade to support EUSO evolvement accordingly. The SoilWise repository and community are designed to be a joint starting point and common ground for countries, the European Commission and other stakeholders to jointly guide soil and related spatial policy and informed decision-making towards the 2030 goals of the Green Deal, achieve healthy soils in 2050 and ensure broad uptake and implementation by land managers, policy, research and industry.

The aim of Soils4Africa is to provide an open-access soil information system with a set of key indicators and underpinning data, accompanied with a methodology for repeated soil monitoring across the African continent. The soil information system will become part of the knowledge and information system of FNSSA and will be hosted by an African institute. Activities are: (i) define use cases and indicators in consultation with stakeholders; (ii) make a functional design of the soil information system; (iii) develop detailed procedures and tools for the field activities based on the LUCAS methodology and collect 20000 soil samples; (iv) develop detailed procedures for laboratory work and analyse the collected soil samples at one reference laboratory located in Africa; and (v) develop the technical infrastructure for the soil information system and serve the results as open data linked with open EO data. The project addresses the work programme of SC 2 in the following ways. First, it contributes to priority 2 (Fostering functional ecosystems) because the soil information system is a tool to target interventions that improve soil quality and provides insight in the impact of these interventions. Secondly, it contributes to priority 1 (Addressing climate change and resilience on land and sea), as the soil information system will contribute to the assessment of carbon losses from soil and the identification of areas with high potential for soil carbon sequestration. Finally, the soil information system provides a platform for the development of sustainable business models by service companies aiming at the development of sustainable food systems, contributing to priority 3 (Boosting major innovations on land and sea). Soils4Africa is linking with relevant H2020 projects and Copernicus on EO data use. It actively connects organizations across Africa and Europe for synergies and promotes an open science approach.