The Apulia Region is renowned for its diverse agricultural output, a fundamental element of its economy. However, climate change poses significant threats to the health of soils, due to diverse degradation factors, water scarcity, and non-sustainable land management practices.The depletion of water resources, the prolonged droughts, and deficiencies in soil nutrients threaten the region's agricultural productivity, its biodiversity, and its overall environmental sustainability. Addressing these issues requires a systemic approach through collaborative, transdisciplinary research with practical, on-the-ground involvement of stakeholders (farmers, land managers, local administrators). The University of Foggia (UNIFG), is ideally positioned to lead innovation activities to co-design an innovative model for soil health enhancement at regional level, in collaboration with farmers, land managers, policy makers, and civil society organizations.The project will combine different solutions, to be tested with the support of international leading partners, at a scale that is representative of the regional dimension and characteristic of most geographical regions of Mediterranean Europe. In particular, the project will develop experimental actions using Nature Based Solutions (with the support of FC.ID from Portugal), developing short supply chains for high potential biofertilisers (with local industrial partners), cutting edge precision fertigation systems (with Ugent) and a digital dashboard to enhance data-driven soil policies based on scientific evidence.The project will reinforce UNIFG’s positioning as a leading knowledge institution in rural economies and agrarian sciences, as well as contributing to sustainable regional soil health policies in the framework of the new European legislation on soil health and monitoring.

SOILdarity is a three-year project aiming to enhance scientific excellence in soil science. The project fosters the cooperation between two internationally leading research-intensive institutions and FCiências.ID - Associação para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento de Ciências (FC.ID). FC.ID is a private non-profit association endowed with legal personality whose aim is to support and develop research and innovation activities of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (CIÊNCIAS). CIÊNCIAS is a key research centre in soil science in Portugal. Within the framework of the Twinning exercise the beneficiary is FC.ID while CIÊNCIAS will be a linked third party to FC.ID. Soil ecosystems in Portugal face considerable challenges in the medium and long run ranging from climate change and erosion to over exploitation dynamics. By developing SOILdarity, FC.ID and CIÊNCIAS aims at boosting its research and innovation capacity and improving its know-how in precision agriculture and sustainable soil management through the knowledge-transfer dynamics established with the internationally leading research-intensive partners, i.e. MIGAL and the University of Ghent. The project lays down a sound scientific strategy on how to integrate soil ecology with cutting-edge soil and crop sensors, modelling and system control technology for sustainable soil management. The project methodology intervenes on four complementary levels: a) transfer of knowledge to FC.ID/CIÊNCIAS on key research challenges; b) reinforcing FC.ID and CIÊNCIAS’ positioning in the EU research arena, seeking new alliances with top R&I organisations; c) skill and capacity building for a new generation of young researchers, who will constitute the main capital of the Portuguese University in the years to come; and d) develop a stable framework dedicated to international cooperation and knowledge transfer.

ENABLING is the initiative of 16 partners in 13 EU and associated (IL, NO) countries. The main goal is to support the spreading of best practices and innovation in the provision (production, pre-processing) of biomass for the BBI (Bio-Based Industry). In particular, ENABLING aims at creating appropriate conditions for the development of efficient biomass to BBPs (Bio-Based Products and Processes) value chains. The consortium’s vision is that Europe bears a huge potential for optimising the supply of biomass into innovative bio-based processes and products. Upscaling biomass production and pre-processing, and combining streams towards the BBPs with those of more traditional bioenergy chains would enhance at least three interlinked types of impact. a) biomass production gains scale to meet higher demand in both sectors (bioenergy and the BBI); b) the reinforcement of biomass supply for the BBI benefits smaller BBI players, helping them diversify and consolidate biomass input sources; c) reinforcing the biomass and BBPs linkages may contribute to job-creation, due to the increased need for specialised workers. To realise such potential, ENABLING also anticipates its longer term exploitation pathways. In the intention of the consortium, the project should aggregate and engage partners for the establishment of a permanent innovation brokerage platform, likely to become in the future, one of the main marketplaces and innovation transfer accelerators at European level. In this sense, the project organises its work around two building blocks: one relates to animating the stakeholders (on the farming and BBPs sides), identifying best practices, turning them into easy to access content (in the EIP format) for their potential users and providing stakeholders with coaching and guidance on innovation. The other one looks at future developments, with the consolidation, in a self-sustainable way, of the innovation brokerage platforms after the end of the EU funded initiative.