Living Labs for co-creating solutions to reduce eutrophication from agriculture

Eutrophication is a critical environmental issue that primarily affects water bodies but is largely driven by nutrient dynamics in soils together with diffuse source contributions. Eutrophication leads to algal blooms, hypoxia, and biodiversity loss, which in turn disrupt the entire food chains threatening both food availability and safety, as well as other ecosystems functions and the services they provide (e.g. drinking water, recreation). Soil management practices, particularly in agricultural soils, can lead to an excessive accumulation of nutrients in soils, predominantly nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), and runoff or leaching into water bodies. Thus, soil management represents an important strategy to mitigate eutrophication. Moreover, degraded soils with low water retention and limited nutrient cycling capacity, exacerbate eutrophication. Therefore, the restoration of soil health offers a critical opportunity for nutrient interception and reduction of downstream aquatic impacts. The Mission Soil proposes the deployment of living labs as a novel approach to research and innovation in soil health. Living labs have the potential to facilitate a green transition by involving multiple actors in real-life sites within a local/regional setting to co-create soil health solutions and achieve large-scale impacts on soil health and soil governance. Projects funded under this topic should deploy a number of living labs to expand and complement the network of soil health living labs initiated in previous Mission Soil topics to gradually establish 100 living labs and lighthouses to lead the transition towards healthy soils by 2030. Soil health living labs are long-term collaborations between multiple actors to address common soil health challenges in real-life sites at local or regional level (10 to 20 sites in each living lab). Depending on the level at which each living lab operates and the specific context (e.g. land use covered, or soil health challenge addressed), applicants can exceptionally propose living labs with fewer sites. Living labs can address soil health challenges in or across different land uses (agricultural, forest and (semi-)natural). Individual sites can be farms, forest holdings, (semi)natural areas etc., where work is carried out and monitored under real-life conditions. In the case of eutrophication, the selection of sites should be conducted to ensure a comprehensive representation of the different drivers that contribute to the eutrophication process in a small river catchment, and where solutions can be co-developed and co-implemented. Sites should be located in nitrate vulnerable zones as designated by the EU countries or regional authorities in reporting period 7 (or more recent) or a clear rationale of the eutrophication challenge based on national, regional or local data should justify the location in other areas. Sites that are exemplary in their performance in terms of soil health improvement and serve as places for demonstration of solutions, training and communication are lighthouses. Lighthouse sites can be part of a living lab or be situated outside a living lab. Projects funded under this topic are expected to kick-start a participatory process or build on existing processes. If building on existing processes, the new proposed living labs should complement the existing network of Mission Soil Living Labs and deliver unique results. While on average, projects run for around four years, the duration of the projects under this topic should accommodate longer timescales required to establish participatory processes and/or for soils processes to take place. Actors working on common shared soil health challenge(s) within and across the living labs of the same project, will be able to compare results, exchange good practices, validate methodologies, replicate actions and solutions and benefit from cross-fertilisation, thereby accelerating the transition towards the shared objective of improving soil health and reducing eutrophication. Proposals should: support the establishment of four to five living labs to work together on soil health aspects that could affect eutrophication in nearby freshwater bodies. The living labs must be located in at least three different Member States and/or Associated Countries and each living lab should focus on a specific small river catchment, clearly identifying up- and downstream eutrophication challenges. Proposals should explain the rationale and mechanism for cooperation within and across the living labs while explaining how the work undertaken will contribute to one or more of the Mission’s specific objectives; establish an interdisciplinary, participatory and multi-actor approach in the living labs to co-design, co-develop, and co-implement locally adapted solutions (practices, tools, and strategies) to reduce eutrophication. Proposed solutions should be adapted to the different environmental, socio-economic and cultural contexts within the river catchment area in which the living labs are operating and take into account the current and future impact of climate change on nutrient exports during floods and droughts; establish for each living lab a baseline of the soil and nearby water body conditions to allow for an accurate co-assessment of the changes in the different sites over time. Monitoring improvements in soil health, ecosystem and associated services, and reductions in eutrophication level. The set of soil health indicators/descriptors presented in the proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience should be used as a basis; proposals may complement with additional indicators tailored to eutrophication as well as to the specific pedoclimatic conditions, land use, and other local/regional factors; assess and demonstrate the technical, social, economic, cultural and environmental viability of the proposed solutions, as well as their potential scalability and transferability to diverse contexts, including…