Study supporting the assessment of EU missions and the review of mission areas: Mission A Soil Deal for Europe assessment report

The Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ (hereafter also referred to as the Mission Soil) addresses alarming developments in soil health degradation and the ensuing detrimental consequences for various essential ecosystem services. The mission relies on an elaborated and coherent strategy rooted in yet going well beyond what could be achieved through Horizon Europe’s research and innovation (R&I) actions alone. The focus on local testing grounds (the 100 living labs and lighthouses), monitoring, training and engagement activities represents a promising way of engaging stakeholders, facilitating experimentation and diffusing learning. Moreover, the R&I actions provide the fundaments for a range of complementary non-R&I actions of both public and private actors. Particularly salient is the development of harmonised indicators, which is a precondition for the implementation of potentially game-changing legislation and incentive schemes. While some possibilities for improvement were identified, the governance arrangements, policy instruments and budgets that have been selected appear to offer a feasible pathway to achieving the implementation plan. Rolling out that plan is progressing well, both in launching Horizon Europe calls and in exploiting synergies with other EU policies like several Green Deal strategies and the CAP. Moving forward, enhanced multi-level governance (involving national, regional and local stakeholders) remains a medium to long term need in order to optimise the mission’s impact.