Speaker
Mission Soil Living Labs and Soil Literacy: Empowering Communities for Healthy Soils
REGISTER HERE

The EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” is one of five Horizon Europe Missions, aiming to establish 100 Soil Health Living Labs (SHLLs) and Lighthouses (SHLHs) by 2030. The Mission works towards achieving healthy soils for food security, biodiversity, climate adaptation, and citizen wellbeing.
This thematic engagement event is jointly organised by SOILL-Startup and ECHO projects and aims to build momentum for the 2025 Mission Soil call by engaging with key stakeholders and future applicants aiming at establishing soil health living labs.
Soil literacy is essential for enabling change. It empowers citizens, educators, landowners, businesses, and public authorities to understand and act on the importance of soil health. Enhancing soil literacy helps ensure more informed engagement in Soil Health Living Labs, fosters public support, and strengthens the societal impact of the Mission Soil.
Objectives of the event
- Raise awareness of the Mission Soil initiative and funding opportunities for creating Soil Health Living Labs.
- Foster understanding of soil literacy as a driver of systemic change.
- Equip participants with examples, methodologies, and tools to promote soil literacy in Living Lab contexts.
- Inspire cross-sector stakeholders to engage in co-designing proposals addressing the Mission Soil call topics funding the establishement of Soil Health Living Labs and Lighthouses.
Who is this event for? Why participate?
This event aims at supporting those who interested in applying to the 2025 Mission Soil call topics funding projects establishing Soil Health Living Labs: Land managers, researchers, soil educators, communicators, and NGOs, public authorities (local and regional), agricultural extension services, Living Lab practitioners, representatives from cultural and creative sectors.
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09:00–09:30 | Arrival, Registration & Welcome Coffee
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This part of the event focuses on the registration of the in-person participants. If you are connected from remote, you can access the zoom waiting room around 9:25 CEST.
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09:30–09:45 | Opening Remarks: Introducing the Mission Soil
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Pier Paolo Roggero is the Italian National Representative for the Mission "A Soil Deal for Europe".
Pier Paolo Roggero
University of Sassari -
09:45–10:00 | Regional Insights - Soil health comes from knowledge: The case of Piedmont
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Igor Boni has been working at IPLA SpA since 1994. IPLA (Istituto Piante da Legno e Ambiente) is the soil service of the Piedmont Region. He is responsible for the "Technical Area of Territory and Agriculture". Expert in the interpretation of soil data, he has collaborated in the field survey of all Piedmont soils.
Speaker
Igor Boni
IPLA - Istituto per le Piante da Legno e l'Ambiente del Piemonte -
10:00–10:20 | SOILL-Startup & ECHO projects - In a nutshell
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This part of the event will focus on presenting the the goals and activities of the two Mission Soil projects which jointly organised this event.
Speaker
Céline Laurent
University of BolzanoECHO projectSpeaker
Alessio Lasina
CREASOILL-Startup Project -
10:20–10:35 | Why Soil Literacy Matters for Europe’s Future
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Margherita Caggiano is in charge of coordinating the activities of Re Soil Foundation, including the PREPSOIL and ECHO projects.
Speaker
Margherita Caggiano
Re Soil Foundation -
10:35–11:30 | Panel: Success Stories – Soil Literacy in Living Labs and Communities
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This panel session aims to provide hands-on examples and insights on past and current activities carried out by living labs, grassroots and bottom-up initiatives around soil literacy.
Speaker
Sara Negri
University of TurinNorth-Western Italy – Piemonte Living Lab (LivingSoiLL Project)Speaker
Luca Battisti
University of TurinUrban Nature-based Solutions: the 'New Soil' and Urban Forest in TurinSpeaker
Egidio Dansero
University of TurinUrban Nature-based Solutions: the 'New Soil' and Urban Forest in TurinSpeaker
Cristina Ciconte
Environmental Tour Guide and ECHO AmbassadorSpeaker
Sergio Pellegrini
CREASOILL-Startup ProjectModerator
Fabiana De Carlo
Trust-IT ServicesSOILL-Startup Project -
11:30–11:45 | Coffee Break
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11:45–12:15 | Funding opportunities: Designing Literacy Actions in Mission Soil Living Labs
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This session will give an overview of the 2025 Mission Soil funding opportunities for establishing Mission Soil Living Labs and the supporting services SOILL-Startup offers to the applicants.
Speaker
Alessio Lasina
CREASOILL-Startup ProjectSpeaker
Gabriele Quattrocchi
Trust-IT ServicesSOILL-Startup -
12:15–13:00 | Pitching Session
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The participants will have the opportunity to pitch the organisation they represent, offer their expertise to existing consortia or look for new partners to be integrated in their consortium.
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13:00–13:10 | Closing Remarks & Next Steps
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13:10–15:00 | Light Lunch & Networking
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Free informal lunch for facilitating any exchange of ideas and contacts. This part is reserved to the in-person participants.


