GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Proposed activities will

• provide a comprehensive, practice-oriented analysis of drivers of soil health considering different socioeconomic dimensions, including public policies, and cultural diversity;
• take stock, integrate and synthesize existing knowledge and knowledge gaps in relation to the eight specific objectives of the mission. This analysis should be constantly updated throughout the project as evidence from new science emerges. It should also allow to display the overall R&I efforts on soils geographically distributed across Member States and Associated Countries, proposing additional actions to overcome an unbalance, where relevant. Activities should result in structured, easily accessible and up-to-date overview of major recent and on-going R&I projects and their results in relation to the eight specific mission objectives;
• develop roadmaps for mission implementation according to each of the mission’s objectives. Roadmaps should include interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary R&I priorities and expected results as well as the technical and socio-economic options to reach each of the mission’s specific objectives, both in the short-term and in the long-term. The roadmaps should provide a timeline for action, including expected outputs and outcomes, and suggest measurable R&I key performance indicators to monitor progress towards each of the specific objectives. The roadmaps should be continuously updated over the lifetime of the project and feed into the various phases of the mission.
• provide an operational framework to oversee, monitor and assess the mission’s evolving R&I portfolio against the identified objectives and expected outcomes, within the proposed timeframe.

Projects should

• involve a range of actors, e.g. researchers, land managers, policy decision makers, economic actors, civil society, social partners and other stakeholders to identify and prioritize the knowledge gaps and R&I needs;
• capitalise on the potential of digital technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT);
• address synergies and trade-offs across the roadmaps (and mission specific objectives) to provide an integrated assessment of pathways towards healthy soils.