About the European Mission Soil Week
The Horizon Europe Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ (Mission Soil) will hold the second edition of the European Mission Soil Week on 12-13 November 2024 in Brussels, Belgium.
Soil health holds a high position in the EU political agenda. The Green Deal and other policies recognise soil health as an essential element for achieving their objectives, such as climate neutrality, stopping desertification and land degradation or reversing biodiversity loss.
The European Mission Soil Week is an annual event designed as a major European gathering that brings together the European soil community. Researchers, policymakers, farmers, foresters, spatial planners, landowners and land managers, businesses, and organisations as well as the general interested public meet to discuss challenges, opportunities and solutions for healthy soils. The European Mission Soil Week therefore brings together and mobilises communities to protect and restore soil health.
The European Mission Soil Week 2023 was held in Madrid and was a great success, welcoming hundreds of participants in person and online and reaching out to 1.6 million people on social media. It enabled participants to communicate, disseminate and inform themselves of solutions based on the latest research results and innovations for healthy soils.
The objectives of European Mission Soil Week 2024 are:
1. Promote the Mission Soil and the funded projects’ achievements and results
- Presentation of the Mission Soil, its achievements and future opportunities
- Showcasing the first 25 Mission Soil living labs
- Showcasing current Mission Soil projects and their results
- Introduce Mission Soil Ambassadors
2. Present and discuss ongoing initiatives for monitoring and improving soil health in Europe
- Increase awareness of the importance of soil, the challenges it faces, and give visibility to the solutions that exist. This year, focus will be placed on the different land-uses and how to promote sustainable use of soil in: agriculture; forestry; urban areas; remediation of polluted sites.
- Show inspiring examples of sustainable soil management by offering field visits to local projects associated with soil health under the different land-uses.
- Focus on monitoring soil health in synergy with the proposal for the EU Soil Monitoring Law.
3. Facilitate the networking between the different soil stakeholders
- Bring together soil scientists, farmers, foresters, land managers, spatial planners, businesses, regional and local authorities, etc., facilitating their interaction to upscale solutions and the protection and restoration of soil health.
- Provide a space for funded projects to meet, interact and build synergies.
The event will be followed by exclusive clusters meetings on 14 November 2024, dedicated to Mission Soil funded projects.
Plenary sessions of the European Mission Soil Week will be livestreamed, allowing everyone to get involved.
Breakout sessions will not be livestreamed, to allow meaningful participatory engagement of in-person attendees.
Field visits at the EMSW 2024
Four field visits are available as part of the EMSW, each corresponding to the topics of the four breakout rooms: agriculture, forestry, urban areas and remediation of polluted sites. These sites are located in Belgium, within an hour's drive from Brussels (see map below). The programme provides detailed descriptions of each visit.