Soils are the foundation of life on Earth, providing clean water and supporting biodiversity; they are the core of food production and an ally in climate change mitigation. Unfortunately, soil is a finite natural resource that has long been under threat, with more than 60% of soils in the EU estimated to be unhealthy.

To combat this, the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 is dedicated to improving soil health, leading to the establishment of the EU Soil Mission. This includes Horizon Europe-funded project Soils for Europe (SOLO), whose main objective is to identify current knowledge gaps, bottlenecks, and drivers, proposing novel approaches to be considered by the Soil Mission, and support the transition towards healthier soils by 2030.

To achieve this, the project has established nine Think Tanks working on Soil Mission objectives, each producing an annual outlook on the knowledge gaps needed to reach its objective. The Think Tanks bring together a mix of SOLO partners and external stakeholders who, through annual collaboration and knowledge exchange, co-create outlooks addressing Research and Innovation (R&I) knowledge gaps for the Soil Mission. The project also hosts yearly cross-fertilisation meetings, where members and stakeholders meet in person to further develop these outlooks, the most recent of which took place in October 2025 in Portugal. Every year, new versions of the outlook documents are created and made available for open review on SOLO’s platform, encouraging interested parties to contribute to the texts and become a part of SOLO’s journey.

This year, SOLO is proud to share its first official Outlook of Soil Health Research and Innovation R&I for 2025, providing an overview of the project and bringing all individual outlooks in one place. The Outlook offers a comprehensive overview of the EU’s current knowledge and innovation needs to improve soil health. It identifies key knowledge gaps, bottlenecks, and recommended actions for relevant soil health topics, each corresponding to one of SOLO’s Think Tanks, namely:

• Outlook on the knowledge gaps to improve soil structure
• Outlook on the knowledge gaps to reduce soil erosion
• Outlook on the knowledge gaps to improve nature conservation of soil biodiversity
• Outlook on the knowledge gaps related to soil literacy
• Outlook on the knowledge gaps to reduce soil sealing and increase the reuse of urban soils
• Outlook on the knowledge gaps to reduce land degradation in Europe
• Outlook on the knowledge gaps to conserve and increase soil organic carbon stocks
• Outlook on the knowledge gaps to reduce the EU global footprint on soils
• Outlook on the knowledge gaps to soil pollution and restoration

Read the “Outlook 2025: Soil Health R&I Knowledge Gaps”.

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Funded by the European Union under grant agreement No. 101091115, SOLO (Soils for Europe).

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.