Social, economic and cultural drivers, and costs of land degradation
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See in 5 min if you're eligible for Social, economic and cultural drivers, and costs of land degradation offering max €12.0M funding💰 Funding Details
Funding Overview
Key Facts
* Call Identifier: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-02
* Action Type: HORIZON-RIA (Research & Innovation Action) – Lump-Sum model
* Maximum EU Contribution per Project: €12 million
* Submission Scheme: Single stage
* Opening Date: 6 May 2025
* Deadline: 30 September 2025 – 17:00 (Brussels time)
What the EU Will Fund
1. Interdisciplinary research combining soil science with SSH disciplines to identify social, economic, cultural and regulatory drivers of land degradation.
2. Pan-European cost assessments (on-site & off-site) for multiple degradation processes (SOC loss, erosion, contamination, sealing, subsidence, biodiversity decline, nutrient loss).
3. Cost-benefit analyses of soil conservation measures, leveraging existing EU projects (e.g. SoilWise, EIP-AGRI OGs, Horizon results).
4. Scenario modelling of Green Deal policies and their socio-economic impacts on soil health.
5. Toolbox of policy solutions tailored to different governance levels and pedo-climatic contexts.
Eligible Participants
* At least three independent legal entities from three different EU Member States or Associated Countries.
* Entities from your country that are not automatically eligible may still join if your country provides co-funding or through own resources.
Funding Mechanics – Lump Sum
* The EU agrees a single lump sum per project that covers 100 % of eligible costs.
* No financial reporting of actual costs – instead, work packages are linked to predefined lump-sum instalments, paid upon completion & approval of deliverables.
Strategic Fit
This topic directly contributes to:
* Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” – all eight soil health objectives.
* SDG 15 “Life on Land”.
* EU Soil Strategy 2030 target of land-based climate neutrality by 2035.
📊 At a Glance
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🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages and Opportunities for HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-02
1. Alignment with EU Strategic Policy Frameworks
- Directly underpins the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, European Green Deal, Biodiversity Strategy, Farm to Fork and Zero-Pollution Action Plan, guaranteeing high political visibility.
- Provides critical evidence for the forthcoming Soil Monitoring & Resilience Directive, positioning the consortium as a trusted advisor for future EU legislation.
- Contributes to all Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ objectives and SDG 15, ensuring priority access to complementary EU support instruments.
2. Single Market Access (450 + million citizens)
- Harmonised cost-benefit models, indicators and policy toolboxes can be rolled out uniformly across 27 Member States, creating a de-facto European standard.
- Digital decision-support services and data products can be commercialised EU-wide without customs or regulatory barriers, vastly enlarging the addressable market for consortium spin-offs and SMEs.
- Facilitates rapid scaling of agri-tech, carbon-credit and land-management solutions that rely on pan-European data comparability.
3. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange
- Multi-actor requirement encourages North-South and East-West partnerships, covering all major pedo-climatic zones and socio-economic contexts.
- Access to EU-level infrastructures (EUSO, ESDAC, SoilWise, Mission Soil Platform) accelerates data sharing, joint publications and standard-setting.
- Enables staff exchanges, joint PhDs and training programmes, nurturing a uniquely European talent pool specialised in soil socio-economics.
4. Regulatory Harmonisation & Evidence Base
- Pan-EU degradation cost assessments create a common language for legislators, easing adoption of convergent soil-health indicators in CAP Strategic Plans and Cohesion Policy.
- Scientifically backed thresholds feed into environmental impact assessments, EU Taxonomy, State-Aid rules and emerging carbon-farming standards, cutting compliance costs for cross-border investors.
- Supports mutual recognition of sustainable land-stewardship certification schemes, lowering market entry barriers for eco-labels.
5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem
- Opens doors to 3,400 + Horizon-registered universities, RTOs, SMEs and NGOs, ensuring critical mass and excellence.
- Synergies with EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Food and the Digital Europe Programme provide acceleration, mentoring and advanced digital infrastructure.
- Leverages Copernicus, EuroHPC and Destination Earth (DestinE) for earth-observation and high-performance computing at marginal cost.
6. Funding Synergies & Leverage
- Results can be mainstreamed into LIFE, CAP eco-schemes, ERDF and Recovery & Resilience Facility, unlocking downstream deployment budgets exceeding €50 billion.
- Interoperability with InvestEU and the Innovation Fund increases bankability of follow-up pilots (e.g., soil remediation PPPs).
- Data/models generated qualify as in-kind contributions to forthcoming European Partnership calls (Agroecology, Circular Bio-Based Europe).
7. Scale, Replicability & Impact Amplification
- Policy toolbox co-created with 100 Living Labs offers ready-made templates for regional authorities, enabling fast roll-out across 240 + NUTS-2 regions.
- Quantified GDP impacts of land degradation can be embedded in European Semester country reports, influencing macro-economic policy in all Member States.
- Robust socio-economic evidence accelerates uptake of sustainable practices by 10 + million farms and 16 % of EU urban land managers.
8. Socio-Economic & Cultural Benefits
- Integrates gender, inequality and land-access dimensions, supporting inclusive CAP objectives and social-fairness agendas.
- Creates high-quality jobs in rural advisory services, remote-sensing analytics and cultural-heritage soil conservation.
- Engages citizens through the Mission Manifesto, improving social licence for transformative land-use reforms.
9. Long-Term Sustainability of Outputs
- FAIR/open-science approach guarantees long-term hosting in EUSO repositories, reducing future research costs EU-wide.
- Compliance with the EU Interoperability Framework makes digital tools plug-and-play for national administrations and corporate ESG systems.
- Peer-to-peer learning and co-creation nurture self-sustaining communities that persist beyond project end.
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Operating at EU scale multiplies scientific credibility, policy relevance, market potential and financial leverage, turning research findings into continent-wide standards and investable solutions for soil health and land-based climate neutrality by 2035.
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See in 5 min if you're eligible for Social, economic and cultural drivers, and costs of land degradation offering max €12.0M funding