EU-Wide Advantages and Opportunities for "Citizen Engagement for Sustainable Land Management through Local and Regional Authorities" (HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-09)

1. Strategic Overview

• The call directly supports Mission Soil’s EU-wide objective of achieving healthy soils by 2050, giving projects immediate visibility and legitimacy across all 27 Member States plus Associated Countries.

• Coordination and Support Action (CSA) status lowers technology-development risk and focuses on engagement, capacity-building and governance—areas where pan-European cooperation delivers the greatest added value.

2. Single Market Access (450+ million consumers & stakeholders)

• Territorial Management Agreements (TMAs) created under the project establish transferable governance models that any EU municipality or region can adopt, enabling rapid replication in the single market for ecological services.

• Harmonised citizen-engagement methodologies help local authorities unlock green public procurement opportunities worth >€200 billion/year EU-wide.

• Enhanced soil literacy creates demand for sustainable agri-food and bio-based products, giving SMEs a continent-wide customer base.

3. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Mandatory involvement of at least 40 local/regional authorities allows balanced geographic coverage (NUTS 2 & 3), fostering peer-learning clusters (e.g. Mediterranean drylands, Central-European loess belts, Nordic boreal soils).

• Shared digital tools (via SoilWise & EUSO) enable real-time benchmarking of soil indicators across borders, accelerating convergence on best practice.

• Financial Support to Third Parties (up to €60 000/authority) can be used to pilot transnational twin-city TMAs (e.g. cross-border river basins), showcasing EU territorial cohesion in action.

4. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

• European Green Deal & Soil Strategy 2030: Direct contribution to carbon sequestration, biodiversity restoration and nutrient pollution reduction targets.

• Climate Adaptation Mission & Nature Restoration Law: TMAs integrate nature-based solutions for flood control and heat-island mitigation.

• Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): Practice abstracts feeding into EIP-AGRI ensure seamless CAP uptake; rural development funds (EAFRD) can later co-finance scaling.

• Digital Europe Programme: Use of earth-observation & AI-driven soil diagnostics leverages pan-EU data infrastructure (Copernicus, DestinE).

5. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• Anticipates forthcoming Directive on Soil Monitoring & Resilience, allowing early adopters to influence secondary legislation and avoid future compliance costs.

• Shared monitoring protocols reduce administrative burden for companies and authorities operating in multiple Member States.

6. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Consortium can tap >3 000 research entities in Horizon Europe networks, securing expertise in SSH, gender studies, geospatial tech and citizen science.

• Interfaces with 100 Soil Living Labs & Lighthouses, providing testbeds for novel engagement formats (serious games, artistic residencies, hackathons).

• Collaboration with JRC’s European Soil Observatory guarantees scientific robustness and open-data visibility.

7. Funding Synergies & Leverage Potential

• LIFE Programme: Complementary funding for long-term restoration measures that emerge from TMAs.

• Interreg & URBACT: Cross-border and urban innovation projects can co-finance further rollout.

• Erasmus+ & European Solidarity Corps: Mobilise youth volunteers and develop vocational curricula on soil stewardship.

• Recovery & Resilience Facility (RRF): Member States can integrate TMA outcomes into national recovery plans, unlocking large-scale investment.

8. Scale and Impact Pathways

• Minimum 40 TMAs create critical mass; if each covers an average of 50 000 inhabitants, initial direct reach = 2 million citizens, with multiplier potential EU-wide.

• Standardised open-source engagement toolkit (licensed CC-BY) facilitates adoption by the >90 000 municipalities across Europe.

• Validated socio-economic impact metrics (e.g. avoided erosion costs, increased recreational value) support inclusion in EU taxonomy-aligned sustainable finance products.

9. Unique EU-Level Strategic Value

1. Policy Shaping Power: Results feed directly into EU Soil Observatory dashboards, influencing Commission progress reports and future funding priorities.

2. Market Creation: Establishes a pan-European market for soil-health advisory services and digital monitoring solutions.

3. Social Cohesion: Inclusive engagement (gender & vulnerable groups) strengthens European citizenship and supports the Conference on the Future of Europe objectives.

4. Global Leadership: Demonstrates EU best practice that can be exported via Neighbourhood, Development & International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI).

10. Actionable Recommendations for Applicants

• Build a consortium spanning at least 12 Member/Associated States to maximise geographical diversity and policy influence.

• Align TMA KPIs with SDG 15 & 11 indicators to facilitate reporting to UN bodies.

• Integrate Copernicus Sentinel-2/3 data workflows to future-proof monitoring against forthcoming EU Space regulations.

• Allocate part of the €60 000 third-party grants for bilingual engagement materials, ensuring linguistic inclusivity across the EU.

• Plan a joint high-level event in Brussels during EU Green Week 2027 to showcase TMA success stories to policymakers and investors.

---

Maximising the EU dimension not only increases evaluation scores under Excellence and Impact but also positions the project as a flagship example of how citizen-centred governance can accelerate the Green Deal across Europe.