Soil health is crucial for challenges related to climate, environment and society. As such, this Soil Health and Food Mission proposal directly links in to the other HE missions, as well as to the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies. Both public and private sectors are proposing a sustainable vision, that depends on a reliable assessment of the effects of management and policy innovations on soil health. Therefore, there is an urgent need to ensure that the EU sets the benchmark of a reliable cost-effective framework for measuring soil health. In alignment with existing initiatives such as EU Soil Observatory, EJP Soil and the LUCAS Topsoil survey, and using open science approaches, the BENCHMARKS consortium will co-design an Integrated Soil Health Monitoring Framework. This framework will build upon the assessment of soil-based ecosystem functions to co-develop an interactive soil health dashboard for (1) the selection of appropriate soil health indicators, (2) soil health assessment and indexation, and (3) recommendation of management practices to support soil health. The dashboard will be suitable at local, landscape, regional and European scales for a variety of stakeholders in urban, agricultural and forestry land use systems. BENCHMARKS indicators will be relevant to the stakeholder’s objectives, applicable to the different land use systems and pedo-climatic zone and appropriate in terms of logistical, financial and sensitivity requirements. To inform on the appropriate spatial resolution of indicators, the Soil Health Mission and BENCHMARKS proposed indicators (sample-based measurements, stats (data and model derived measurements), space (earth observation techniques)) and citizen science observations will be tested in 24 Living Labs across Europe. Finally, BENCHMARKS will support policy development and value-chain innovation through increased evidence on the links between soil health, functions and ecosystem services.

The overall goal of DiverIMPACTS is to achieve the full potential of diversification of cropping systems for improved productivity, delivery of ecosystem services and resource-efficient and sustainable value chains by (i) assessing performances of crop diversification through rotation, intercropping and multiple cropping, (ii) providing rural areas actors with those key enablers and innovations that would remove existing barriers and ensure actual uptake of benefits of crop diversification at farm, value chain and territory levels and (iii) make recommendations to policy-makers to facilitate the coordination of all relevant actors within the value chain. DiverIMPACTS will build on existing experiences of crop diversification by networking and expanding 10 existing field experiments to quantify impacts of crop diversification and by accompanying 25 multi-actor case studies in their dynamic transition. DiverIMPACTS will propose a range of technical and organisational innovations to remove lock-ins from farmers to consumers as well as strategies and recommendations to sustain crop diversification. The consortium gathers a wide range of actors (farmers and farmer organisations, advisory services, cooperatives, logistic providers, scientists, industry, representatives of civil society and of rural areas). Through a multi-actor approach, DiverIMPACTS will accompany and support innovation groups in their dynamic process to develop sustainable value chain systems characterised by a high level of crop diversification and new market products. The consortium involves pioneer actors of crop diversification and has strong experience in both the design and multi-criteria assessment of innovative systems and the analysis of barriers that impede the transition towards sustainable diversified systems that contribute to the Rural Renaissance objectives.