Soil Mission Week 2024 – Report
On 11 November 2024, the BUV Living Lab was presented by Chief Assis. Rumyana Gerogieva at the SOILL-Startup Annual Community Engagement held in Brussels. This event, held just before the European Soil Mission Week, offered an engaging opportunity for BUV Living Lab to connect with the SOILL-Startup community, explore ongoing progress, and interact with the other Soil Health Living Labs (link to the event). The participants shared insights, participated in interactive sessions, and strengthened collaboration within the network. During the official opening, Ms. Kerstin Rosenow (EC, DG Agri) and Mr. Benoit Pereira, (EC, REA) presented the Soil Mission. During an interactive approaches like World cafe and Bingo the LL representatives and all participants had the possibility to know and connect each other. Important part of the event was the presentation of the upcoming SOILL Hub, which will serve as a platform for knowledge, support and connection between the LLs and the Soil Mission community.
The SOILL Start-up and NATI00NS projects presented the last edition of the document ,, One year into the Mission Soil’’, which highlights key findings and recommendations gathered during two sessions on the Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe.” These sessions were co-organised by the projects at the OpenLivingLab Days 2024 conference in Timișoara, Romania (24-27 September 2024). The BUV Living Lab participated actively in this event and its contribution is mentioned in the Acknowledgment section (One year into Soil Mission).
During the Europen Soil Mission Week (12th to 13th of November) the representer of the BUV Living Lab participated in plenary sessions providing updates on the latest policy developments related to soil health and presenting the Mission Soil progress towards its main goal to establish 100 living labs and lighthouses to lead the transition towards healthy soils by 2030. Rumyana Georgieva participated in the breakout session “Soil Health for a Sustainable Forest-Based Bioeconomy,” where innovative strategies for managing forest soils to achieve sustainability and climate objectives were discussed. The session provided insights into the HoliSoils and pHYBi projects, as well as the work of public institutions. It highlighted soil management practices that enhance ecosystem services, mitigate climate change, and promote sustainable biomass production on degraded lands. During the plenary session on “Human-Soil Relations,” the importance of international commitment, art, and social sciences as drivers for sustainable land management was discussed. The stand visits enabled engaging ways to network with project representatives and learn about the work and results of Mission Soil-funded projects, such as HUMUS, NBSOIL, SOILL, and many others. The new Mission Soil Ambassadors shared insights into their work and contributions. Rumyana Georgieva attended the site visit to the Walloon Center for Research in Agriculture (CRA-W), in Gembloux, which was focused on agricultural land use. The visit included a tour of the experimental plots and trials of the SYCI project (from French “SYstèmes de Cultures Innovants”, Innovative Cropping Systems) which aims to design, install, and compare three innovative farming systems in response to distinct challenges faced in food production.
