Developing transfer functions for the Soil Monitoring Law

The main goal of this opportunity is to improve the way soil health is monitored and assessed across the European Union. It focuses on integrating different soil monitoring systems to create a harmonized approach for soil health evaluation. Special attention is given to making soil data compatible, interoperable, and comparable, especially for soil organic carbon and other key soil descriptors. The initiative supports better monitoring, reporting, and verification in carbon farming, and aims to advance assessment methods from local to EU-wide scales. This opportunity covers at least 21 Member States and targets 80% of the EU land area.

• Develop and validate soil transfer functions that relate measurable soil properties (e.g., moisture, organic content, biodiversity indicators) to soil health thresholds outlined in the planned EU Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive.

• Use empirical data and modeling to convert indicator values into actionable soil status assessments, supporting consistent EU-wide harmonisation of monitoring and reporting.

• Collaborate with national soil monitoring systems and the emerging European Soil Observatory (EUSO) to ensure technical alignment and interoperability.

• Pilot the transfer functions across representative soil types and land uses, ensuring relevance to agricultural, urban, forest, and natural environments.

Example projects:

• A project that brings together national soil monitoring teams from 25 EU countries to harmonize soil health data collection methods.
• A collaborative initiative that develops new digital tools for comparing soil organic carbon data across different European regions.
• A partnership between research centers and government agencies to validate soil health assessment methods using samples from the LUCAS 2022 locations.

• Personnel costs
• Subcontracting
• Travel and subsistence
• Equipment (depreciation or rental)
• Consumables and materials
• Dissemination and communication
• Access to research infrastructure
• IPR and certification
• Audit costs
• Indirect costs (25% flat rate)
• Internally invoiced services

• Budget for this Call: 6.000.000€
• Number of Grants attributed: 1

• Minimum three independent entities from three different eligible countries, one in an EU Member State

• All partners must be from EU or associated countries and show financial and operational capacity

• Research and Innovation Action (RIA) focused on creating validated transfer functions for the Soil Monitoring Law

• Must ensure compatibility between national and EU soil monitoring systems

• Should support EU soil carbon accounting and integration with EU carbon removal frameworks

• Must involve national monitoring agencies, labs, researchers, and policymakers

• Horizon Europe standard rules on ethics, conflicts of interest, and legal compliance apply