TUdi at a webinar fostering 'A Soil Deal for Europe'

TUdi has been invited to participate in a webinar on living labs and lighthouses in the Nordic context. The webinar will take place on 30 May 2022 and will focus on a discussion about the EU mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, which aims to establish 100 living labs and lighthouses to lead the transition towards healthy soils by 2030. ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ takes the improvement of soil health as its core mission considering it directly impacts global food systems and provides clean water and habitats for biodiversity while contributing to climate resilience. 

In light of the fragility of soils, ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ aims to reduce desertification, reduce soil pollution, enhance restoration, prevent erosion, improve soil structure to enhance soil biodiversity, and reduce the EU global footprint on soils among other objectives.

One way to achieve the ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ objectives is through living labs - places to experiment on the ground where researchers, farmers, foresters, spatial planners, land managers, and citizens come together to co-create innovations in real life conditions in collaboration with end-users (commercial farms, forest exploitation, real urban green parks or industrial sites etc.). Another way to improve soil health is through lighthouses - single entities (e.g. farm or park) where exemplary practices can be demonstrated and can inspire other practitioners to move towards sustainable land management.

Such important concepts will be examined and discussed during the webinar in a European and Nordic context together with the European Commission and three other organisations working with sustainable agriculture by linking research and practice, thus having the potential to become living labs or lighthouses. 

The ultimate aim of the webinar is to foster Nordic cooperation and increase knowledge of current soil policy concepts to fruitfully contribute to the EU mission for healthy soils by 2030. Through its participation in the event, TUdi project will help in furthering the progress of better land management and agricultural practices for soil health in Europe and beyond.

The webinar is hosted by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and the Nordic research institutes – Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE) and Aarhus University through the European Joint Programme SOIL (EJP SOIL).

Follow #ejpsoilwebinar on Twitter to find out more.