Here you will find answers to some of the most common questions regarding the application process. Whether you're a first-time applicant or a seasoned veteran, we're here to help you every step of the way. Read on to find helpful tips and guidance to ensure a successful application.
EU Soil Mission
- What are the objectives of the EU Soil Mission?
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The mission aims at moving by 2030 well beyond the current status of having only 30 40% of healthy soils in Europe. This goal is substantiated with eight specific objectives that contribute to the achievement existing EU policy targets related to:
- Reduce land degradation relating to desertification
- Conserve and increase soil organic carbon stocks
- No net soil sealing and increase the reuse of urban soils
- Reduce soil pollution and enhance restoration
- Prevent erosion
- Improve soil structure to enhance habitat quality for soil biota and crops
- Reduce the EU global footprint on soils
- Increase soil literacy in society across Member States
For more information on the EU Soil Mission objectives, targets, baseline and indicators, please see the Soil Mission Implementation Plan.
- How is Soil Health defined?
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Soil health is defined in the Soil Mission Implementation Plan as “the continued capacity of soils to support ecosystem services” and is assessed through a set of proposed, measurable indicators.
Open call topics
- Which call topics does the NATI00NS Helpdesk support?
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The NATI00NS Helpdesk is supporting two topic of the 2023 open call "Research and Innovation and other actions to support the implementation of mission A Soil Deal for Europe":
- The first is HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-08: Co-creating solutions for soil health in Living Labs.
- The second is HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-09: Carbon farming in living labs
For more information on these call topics, please see The Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023 - EU Missions
- Which EU Soil Mission objectives should be covered in an application submitted under the topic HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-08: Co-creating solutions for soil health in Living Labs?
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The HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-08 topic is to support Living Labs that deal with urgent soil health challenges that contribute to the Soil Missions objectives 1 to 6 and 8. Carbon farming Living Labs are excluded from the 01-08-topic, since they are the focus of the 01-09-topic within this work program. However, according to the Mission Secretariat, objective 2 can be touched upon by the funded LL under topic 08.
- Which EU Soil Mission objectives should be covered in an application submitted under the topic HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-09: Carbon farming in living labs?
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The focus of the Living Labs under topic HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-09: Carbon farming in living labs should always be on specific objective 2 (SO2). Ecosystems are interconnected, and according to the Mission Secretariat, other objectives of the mission can be touched upon while working on conserving carbon stocks in the soil.
- Does my application need to cover all EU Soil Mission objectives?
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Living Labs and Lighthouses do not need to focus on all call topic related objectives, but they are likely to address multiple.
As an example from an urban perspective, projects could focus on increasing urban green areas through de-paving and de-sealing and could cover Soil Mission objectives 3 – re-use of urban soils, 6 – soil structure and biodiversity, and 8 – soil literacy.
- Can an application contain Living Labs dealing with different land use types?
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Yes, each project (=group of 4-5 or more Living Labs) might choose to work on several soil health challenges/themes/mission objectives at the same time and that they might have also Living Labs across different lands uses working on those common challenge(s).
- What are the criteria for the selection and set-up of living labs and lighthouses?
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The following new and detailed set of criteria has been developed specifically for soil health living labs and aligned with the work of the Soil Mission Support (SMS) project, the ALL-READY project based on McPhee et al, (2021) and previous work at ENOLL and G20 level. The main criteria are represented in the figure below. The detailed list of criteria can be found in section 8.D of the Soil Mission Implementation Plan.
- How can I find potential partners to build a Living Lab or project consortium?
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To join or develop a local or regional Living Lab, you can look for opportunities to meet and engage with soil scientists, soil advisors or other soil stakeholders in your region.
NATI00NS is organising national engagement events in all countries relevant for the Open call. You can find coming and past events (many with recordings) here: https://www.nati00ns.eu/events.
A trans-European map of potential Living Labs and Lighthouse initiatives can be found here: https://prepsoil.eu/living-labs-and-lighthouses/map. The PREPSOIL project will further expand the map.
NATI00NS is offering a Matchmaking platform for interested stakeholders, potential call applicants, and upcoming Living Labs at national or regional level to reach out and meet potential project partners for the creation of cross-regional or trans-national clusters of Living Labs for the calls. Please visit and register to the Matchmaking platform here.
At the Thematic event webinars, which are all to be held online between October 23 and February 24, you can meet organisations who might be potential partners for developing project proposals for future LL call topics. Please subscribe to our Newsletter to receive updates about these webinars.
Soil Health Living Labs & Lighthouses
Other financial questions have to be directed to the Research Enquiry Service
- What are Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses?
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“Soil health living labs” are defined as “user-centred, place-based and transdisciplinary research and innovation ecosystems, which involve land managers, scientists and other relevant partners in systemic research and codesign, testing, monitoring and evaluation of solutions, in real-life settings, to improve their effectiveness for soil health and accelerate adoption.” These living labs are collaborations between multiple partners that operate at regional or sub-regional level and coordinate experiments on several sites within a regional or sub-regional area (or working landscapes);
“Lighthouses” are defined as “places for demonstration of solutions, training and communication that are exemplary in their performance in terms of soil health improvement”. They are local sites (one farm, one forest exploitation, one industrial site, one urban city green area, etc.) that can be included in a living lab area or be situated outside a living lab area."Source: Soil Mission Implementation Plan
- Who are the main stakeholders involved in a Living Lab?
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An essential characteristic of the Living Lab methodology is the user-centric approach, with involvement of all relevant actors and end-users. The specific actors will change depending on the focus, objective, and context of the Living Lab, but all the actors can be classified according to the Quadruple Helix Model which is an extension of the typical Public Private Partnership.
The Quadruple Helix Model involves representatives from all sectors of society:
- ACADEMIA can for example be universities or research & development centres.
- The PUBLIC SECTOR can be government and regional development agencies and policy makers, as well as public sector in general.
- INDUSTRY can consist of businesses of all size and business clusters and associations.
- CITIZENS AND CIVIL SOCIETY includes all end-users such as consumers and their associations.
These together form what we call Public Private People Partnership (PPPP) that enables real co-creation and impact, and are the groups of stakeholders that are to be involved in a Living Lab.
- What is covered when engaging in a Living Lab project?
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To explore the full range of options including what type of costs and activities are eligible to be funded under Horizon Europe, applicants should refer to the AGA – Annotated Model Grant Agreement.
- Can farmers and other stakeholders be supported financially for their invested time and contribution to the Living Labs project, once funded?
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Yes, it is possible to allocate lump sums for use for e.g. farmers active participation. Different actors can have a different way of participating in the Living Labs (e.g. beneficiaries, associated partners, third parties receiving financial contribution...).
There is a paragraph in the call referring to this (copied below for easiness):
“To encourage and facilitate the involvement of different types of actors in the living labs, applicants are reminded of the different types of participation possible under Horizon Europe: This includes not only beneficiaries (or their affiliated entities) but also associated partners, third parties giving in-kind contributions, subcontractors and recipients of financial support to third parties. Proposals may provide financial support to third parties by launching cascading grant call(s) or by identifying third parties without an open call for proposals to implement one or more of the living lab activities described in this topic. Applicants are reminded to consult the standard conditions for “financial support to third parties” set out in Annex B of the General Annexes”
General questions
- How can I stay up-to-date on NATI00NS activities?
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Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media to receive news about upcoming events and activities. LinkedIn - Twitter - YouTube
- How is the NATI00NS project supporting the call topics?
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Beside the Helpdesk, NATI00NS is providing the following support:
- A Matchmaking platform for interested stakeholders, potential call applicants, and upcoming Living Labs at national or regional level to reach out and meet potential project partners for the creation of cross-regional or trans-national clusters of Living Labs for the calls. Please visit and register to the Matchmaking platform here: https://nati00ns-soil-living-lab-matching.b2match.io/
- National engagement events in all countries relevant for the Open call. You can find coming and past events (many with recordings) here: https://www.nati00ns.eu/events.
- Capacity Building webinars and e-learning materials: Three webinars will be hosted this early Summer to present information on Living Labs methodology, Mission criteria, best practices and recommendations, as well as on application process. Factsheets are also soon available to provide key information on Mission objectives, LL criteria and specificities for different land use types: agriculture, urban, industry, forestry. Keep an eye on our website for the release of the factsheets and subscribe to our Newsletter to be informed about the launching of the Capacity Building webinars.
- Coaching by national mentors: Mentors trained by NATI00NS offer coaching of applicants at national level. Potential living labs applicants can contact the mentor in their country and ask for individual confidential coaching sessions to discuss their ideas. The list of mentors and contact details are available here: https://www.nati00ns.eu/mentors. Not all countries have a mentor.