Soil Salinity in Europe: Drivers, indicators, current levels and temporal changes

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Code: 37790 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-11 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

Excessive soil salinity is a significant environmental issue in Europe, negatively impacting soil fertility, plant growth, soil biodiversity, the soil microbiome, and overall ecosystem functioning.

Climate change, coupled with increased evaporation and irrigation, is likely to exacerbate salinization, potentially leading to uncertain consequences for carbon storage and water cycling because of soil degradation induced by salinity.

Salinity is one of the descriptors in the proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience and is recognized as one of the major drivers of soil degradation. The extent of soil salinization in Europe remains uncertain.

Currently, there is no quantitative model capable of predicting future soil salinization in Europe under changing climate conditions at the resolution necessary for local management action and policy development.

Network on carbon farming and emissions reductions for agricultural and forest lands

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Code: 37787 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-10 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

The success of carbon farming in Europe will be judged on the quantity and quality of the sequestration of carbon in plants and soils and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural soils, as well as on the benefits for sustainability objectives (notably biodiversity) of the activities leading to such carbon sequestration or emission reductions, in a context of increasing impacts from climate change.

To upscale carbon farming successfully and to establish long-term business perspectives, it is essential to standardise the methodologies and rules for monitoring, reporting and verifying (MRV) the gains or losses in carbon sequestered.

Currently, private schemes apply very different benchmarks and rules to the carbon credits placed on the voluntary markets. With a high degree of transparency, environmental integrity, and methodology standardisation, buyers should have more trust in the quality of the offered carbon farming credits, land managers should also be able to more easily estimate their potential revenues, and policy makers should be keener to allow the use of such credits to warrant compliance with the EU climate regulatory framework, including currently existing 2030 targets (Effort-Sharing Regulation, Regulation on land use, land use change and forestry – LULUCF) and the 2050 climate neutrality goal. Therefore, such a regulated framework should contribute to develop a successful market for carbon farming.

Citizen engagement for sustainable land management through local and regional authorities

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Code: 37784 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-09 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

Citizen engagement is one of the building blocks of the Mission Soil but despite the advances in recognising the importance of soil health and the momentum for soil in the political agenda, active participation in soil protection and restoration and understanding of soil health importance often remain limited among non-experts.

Activities under this topic should involve local and regional authorities in the protection and restoration of soil health and establish participatory processes that take into account citizens’ priorities.

Local and regional participatory processes should result in Territorial Management Agreements aimed at the protection and restoration of soil health for the provision of ecosystem services, including biodiversity, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Support to the operation and further development of soil-health science-policy interfaces and national soil-health hubs

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Code: 37781 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-08 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

A range of programmes, projects and initiatives have been working at international, EU, and national level to increase and systematise available scientific knowledge on soil health and drivers of soil degradation, and to facilitate the uptake of this knowledge in policies for more sustainable soil management practices.

This includes efforts, including under the Mission Soil, to create dedicated structures at national level to facilitate the sharing and transfer of knowledge between science on the one hand, and the designing and implementation of policies on the other.

However, linkages between different science-policy interfaces in the European and international landscape remain relatively weak, and their effectiveness is subject to debate, while some do not appear to be fully operational.

Improved land suitability for soil health and sustainable biomass production

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Code: 37778 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-07 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

Soil, as a fundamental component of terrestrial ecosystems, is crucial for biomass production and its capabilities and limitations.

Hence, effective land use planning must consider the requirements and constraints associated with different soil properties.

For instance, excessive nutrient export due to biomass removal can negatively impact soil health and the overall ecosystem functioning.

Consequently, prioritizing land suitability, alongside other key biophysical aspects such as climate, is essential for maintaining soil health while ensuring sustainable biomass production.

When stakeholders and land managers take land suitability and soil properties into account, they can make more informed decisions about e.g., land use, land management practices, and environmental protection.

This approach ultimately promotes sustainable and efficient land management strategies for biomass production.

Quantifying the impact of farming practices on soil health in arable lands

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Code: 37775 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-06 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

Agricultural land covers nearly half of the EU, with two-thirds dedicated to arable crops. Farming practices, especially in combination, are critical for maintaining soil functions such as structure, nutrient cycling, and water retention — key to food production and ecosystem resilience.

There is a need to better understand how different farming practices impact the composition and functions of soil biodiversity, carbon capture and storage, GHG emissions, water infiltration and retention.

Additionally, more knowledge is needed to understand how multiple threats and farming practices simultaneously interact and affect soil health (e.g. the interplay between various farming practices and climate change).

EU global footprint on soils

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Code: 37772 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-05 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

The use of bio-based products (e.g. food, feed, fibre, wood and biomass) by businesses and consumers in the EU has an impact on soil health globally.

However, this impact has been poorly studied and understood. The European Commission has developed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based framework to monitor the evolution of the overall environmental footprint of EU production and consumption and to compare it against planetary boundaries, the “EU Consumption Footprint Platform”.

However, this framework does not sufficiently consider the specific impact on soil health and there is a need to enrich the existing indicators in terms of physical, chemical and biological soil properties.

Developing transfer functions for the Soil Monitoring Law

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Code: 37769 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-04 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

The proposed Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience (Soil Monitoring Law – SML) aims to put in place a coherent and integrated soil monitoring framework for all soils across the EU.

However, currently there are many different methods in the EU to monitor and assess soil health, from sampling to laboratorial procedures, and some Member States have long-standing soil monitoring systems and procedures which they prefer to keep for economic reasons and to safeguard long-term datasets.

Validated transfer functions are therefore needed to reliably convert soil measurements to a common reference method and to facilitate a smooth and cost-effective transition to a harmonized soil health assessment across the EU.

Some knowledge on transfer functions is already established for certain soil physical and hydraulic properties, but existing knowledge does not cover the entire combination of laboratorial and field methods available across the EU for all the soil descriptors present in the SML proposal.

Increasing environmental resilience through a better knowledge and management of the soil-water nexus

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Code: 37766 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

The world is facing an increasing trend in the frequency and virulence of extreme events like droughts, wildfires, and floods, with soil, and more precisely soil-water interactions, playing a key role in their occurrence and impact.

A holistic response is necessary to face these events and better manage the risks and impacts they create onto the environment, food security, the economy and human security.

Social, economic and cultural drivers, and costs of land degradation

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Code: 37763 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

The social, economic, cultural, political, and regulatory factors that drive land management and land degradation and the interaction among these factors has been insufficiently explored.

Moreover, there is a knowledge gap in estimating the costs that land degradation generates on-site, directly affecting land users and managers, and offsite, borne by society.

Currently, the lack of knowledge on the costs of land degradation hampers the development of cost-benefit scenarios for the adoption and implementation of soil conservation and restoration actions across the EU and Associated Countries.

An improved understanding of the social, economic, political, regulatory, and cultural factors, together with quantification of the costs of land degradation, should lead to evidence-based strategies, policies and integrated approaches that support land managers in rural, intermediate, and urban areas to adopt and implement sustainable land management practices that reduce and eventually stop land degradation and enhance soil health.

Living Labs for soil remediation and green redevelopment of brownfields

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Code: 37760 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 30/09/2025

De-industrialisation and abandonment of areas previously developed for industrial or commercial purposes have produced many brownfields all over Europe, representing a major concern at different levels with adverse effects on the economy the environment, human health, social well-being and quality of life in their surroundings.

However, many brownfields are located within urban boundaries and as such represent an opportunity for sustainable urban regeneration initiatives and offer competitive alternatives to greenfield developments (in line with the New European Bauhaus initiative).

Pre-commercial procurement of breakthrough solutions for climate proofing of public buildings

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Code: 37757 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-01-CLIMA-06 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 24/09/2025

Buildings are vulnerable to climate change in different ways. For example, climate change can increase their risk of collapse, damage their construction materials, and even threaten their structural integrity. It can also cause significant loss of value because of more storms, snow or subsidence damage, water encroachment, deteriorating indoor climate and reduced building lifetime.

Besides impacting the structural features of a building, climate change can influence the conditions under which people live, work and interact indoors. An inability to properly regulate indoor temperatures may lead to thermal discomfort for users, potentially negatively impacting health, well-being, and productivity. In most places, users need to use heating and cooling systems to cope with thermal discomfort brought about by temperature extremes.

Better understanding incentives for private sector financing of adaptation solutions

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Code: 37754 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-01-CLIMA-05 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 24/09/2025

Financing was highlighted by 93% of the Mission Charter signatories as the biggest challenge their region or local authority face. This was not unexpected and financing for adaptation is also one of the key enabling conditions identified by the Mission Implementation Plan.

Adapting to the impacts of climate change requires mobilising significant resources, which can only be achieved by mobilising private and public funding alike. So far, the private sector involvement in financing implementation of adaptation measures and solutions has been quite limited. At this stage, climate adaptation generally relies to a large extent on some kind of public support.

EU Digital Twin Ocean: Contribution to the EU DTO core infrastructure through applications for sustainable ocean management

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Code: 37751 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-03-OCEAN-08 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 07/05/2025 | End submission calls: 24/09/2025

Proposals should target at least two new Digital Twin Ocean (DTO) domain applications, either addressing policy or regulatory implementation or sustainable marine or maritime business operations (aquaculture and fisheries, sustainable tourism, etc.), with demonstrated usability at different geographical scales, for ocean and coastal management and planning, policy or regulatory implementation and decision-making or sustainable marine and maritime business operations. Each verified use cases (implementation of the domain applications at different geographic settings, including the relevant data, models, tools and interactions with stakeholders) should be demonstrated in at least 3 different sea basins (amounting to 6 use cases in total), with each of the 4 EU sea basins (1. Atlantic and Arctic Sea basin, 2. Baltic and North Sea, 3. Mediterranean Sea basin and 4. Danube River basin and Black Sea) covered at least by one use-case.

Testing and demonstrating innovative solutions to improve resilience to extreme heat, including addressing health impacts

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Code: 37748 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-01-CLIMA-04 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 24/09/2025

Rationale

With more frequent and intense heatwaves, extreme heat is the deadliest manifestation of climate change in Europe. It is estimated that, in the summer of 2022, heat was responsible for 60,000-70,000 premature deaths in Europe.

In fact, the European Climate Risk Assessment identifies heat as the largest and most urgent climate hazard for human health. Heat risks to the general population are already at critical levels in Southern Europe. More and urgent action is needed to reduce health risks, both from heat indoors and outdoors.

Mission Lighthouses coordination and support activities

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Code: 37745 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-03-OCEAN-07 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 07/05/2025 | End submission calls: 24/09/2025

The Mission Ocean and Waters defines “lighthouses” as central hubs that foster the development and deployment of innovative solutions across technology, society, business, and governance. Their purpose is to accelerate progress towards the Mission’s objectives and deliver a positive impact in river and sea basins through science and technology.

To ensure broad regional engagement, the Mission is organised around four area-based lighthouses: the Atlantic-Arctic, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic-North Sea, and the Danube River-Black Sea. These lighthouses act as cooperation platforms and apply a systemic approach that connects inland waters with marine ecosystems.

Proposals under this framework are expected to bring together diverse public and private organisations, networks, and expertise. Their role is to ensure continuity of the four lighthouses while expanding their scope to cover all Mission objectives and to facilitate the implementation of the Mission’s second phase.

Actions should provide basin-level support to stakeholders, enabling the replication and scaling up of innovative solutions. Since water challenges are transboundary in nature, coordination and cooperation across regions and basins are essential for the effectiveness of solutions and for addressing shared problems.

By 2030, proposals must demonstrate how their activities contribute to the Mission’s objectives during the deployment and upscaling phase. Cooperation with European research infrastructures is encouraged to strengthen impact, sustainability, and knowledge exchange.

Demonstrating solutions to help hotspots in coastal regions to adapt to climate change

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Code: 37744 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-01-CLIMA-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 24/09/2025

Rationale

As highlighted in the first European Climate Risk assessment by the European Environment Agency: Southern Europe, low-lying coastal regions (including many densely populated cities) and EU outermost regions are geographical ‘hotspots’ concentrating climate risks with high severity and demanding urgent action.

On the other hand, the IPCC sixth assessment report recognised sea level rise as an “existential threat for coastal communities and their heritage, particularly beyond 2100”, also highlighting the urgency for increasing adaptation efforts. This is why this topic specifically addresses coastal resilience in hotspot regions.

Restoring Ocean and Waters on Islands

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Code: 37739 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-03-OCEAN-06 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 07/05/2025 | End submission calls: 24/09/2025

The goal of this topic is to work with public authorities to accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions to achieve Mission objectives and targets on islands, including small ones.

The project should test and demonstrate effective solutions to achieve the Mission’s specific objectives and targets on islands. The project should thus test and demonstrate solutions contribute to:

1. protecting and restoring marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and Nature Restoration Regulation, and/or
2. preventing and eliminating pollution of our ocean, seas and waters, in line with the EU Action Plan Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil and/or
3. making the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular, in line with the European Climate Law and the holistic vision enshrined in the Sustainable Blue Economy Strategy.

Supporting regional and local authorities in developing their Action Plans towards climate resilience

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Code: 37738 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-01-CLIMA-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 06/05/2025 | End submission calls: 24/09/2025

This topic relates to the Mission’s first and second objectives^[1] and aims to have at least 70 regional and local authorities that will have formulated their climate adaptation Action Plans.

As described by the first European Climate Risk assessment and addressed by the Commission’s Communication on Managing Climate Risks, asymmetrical exposure to climate impacts exacerbates the already existing disparities between regions in terms of need for climate adaptation, risk prevention and preparedness.

Restoring Ocean and Waters in waterfront Cities and their Ports

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Code: 37735 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2025-03-OCEAN-05 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 07/05/2025 | End submission calls: 24/09/2025

The goal of this topic is to accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions to achieve Mission objectives and targets in waterfront cities and ports.

The project should test and demonstrate effective solutions to achieve the Mission’s specific objectives and targets in waterfront cities. The project should thus test and demonstrate solutions that contribute to:

1. protecting and restoring marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and Nature Restoration Regulation, and/or
2. preventing and eliminating pollution of our ocean, seas and waters, in line with the EU Action Plan Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil and/or
3. making the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular, in line with the European Climate Law and the holistic vision enshrined in the Sustainable Blue Economy Strategy.