Did you know that soils clean, store and regulate the flow of water and thereby prevent droughts, flooding and erosion?
If you know the answer and much more, don’t miss the opportunity to complete a survey to express your opinion on the new mission of the EU“Soil health and food”. Your opinion matters for the new mission which will part of the next research programme Horizon Europe starting in 2021. Your answers will help to develop the scope of the mission and communicate to you on its design and implementation.
You can access the survey here. The survey will take around 10 min. You can fill it until 19 January 2020.
What are the missions of EU for?
Missions are a new instrument for research and innovation to increase the impact of research, connect with citizens and show that science matters in day-to-day lives. A mission in the area of soil health and food will:
- raise awareness on the importance of soils for food production
- deliver knowledge and solutions to manage soils in more sustainable ways so that they are preserved for future generations
The importance of soil health and food
Land and soils are essential for all life-sustaining processes on our planet. They are the basis for the food we grow as well as for many other products such as feed, textiles, or wood.
Soils are facing pressures from an increasing population with demands on land for production, settlement and industries. Soils are also heavily affected by climate change, erosion and sea level rises. Approximately 33% of our global soils are degraded and in the EU, erosion is affecting 25% of agricultural land. Soils are highly dynamic and fragile systems – it can take up to 1,000 years to produce 1cm of soil.
A mission in the area of soil health and food will provide a powerful tool to raise awareness on the importance of soils, engage with citizens, create knowledge and develop solutions for restoring soil health and soil functions. This will allow full use of the potential of soils to mitigate the effects of climate change.
#MissionSoil #HorizonEU #ExcaliburProject
