Background and scope
Soils are essential ecosystems that deliver valuable services such as the provision of food, energy and raw materials, nutrient regulation, and water purification and infiltration. Healthy soils are thus a key enabler supporting the objectives of the European Green Deal.
However, about 60% of EU soils are considered unhealthy, losing their capacity to support agricultural production of food, feed and biomass. According to recent estimates, fourteen European countries saw land area highly sensitive to desertification nearly double to 400 000 km2 in the period 2008 to 2017. In addition, agricultural soils in the EU are depleted in soil organic carbon, which could impact EU climate change mitigation efforts. Furthermore, EU soils are under increasing pressure from various sources, including contamination by microplastics, heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants, as well as the inappropriate use of fertilizers, pesticides, and antibiotics. These activities harm soil health and fertility, reduceiodiversity and threaten the sustainability and resilience of agricultural production.
In line with the ambitions of the Commission Communications on Building the future with nature: Boosting Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the EU, (a critical technology identified under the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, the Vision for Agriculture and Food and the objectives of the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, this Challenge focuses on reinforcing soil-based agricultural production, encompassing food, feed and biomass, through biotech driven deep tech solutions that will:
- Improve soil health and enhance the quality of agricultural products, by for example increasing their micronutrient content and availability, while supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services
- Address soil pollution to restore, enhance and protect soil health, including the extraction, degradation or transformation of pollutants, and the restoration of soil biodiversity, thus enabling sustainable agriculture on degraded and contaminated lands, and
- Reduce dependency on hazardous chemicals, enhance soil fertility and health while minimising environmental impacts.
Specific objectives
The start-ups and SMEs to be supported under this Challenge must focus on developing biotech driven solutions in one (or more) of the following areas:
- Bioremediation technologies: focused on restoring and enhancing soil health enabling sustainable agriculture in contaminated lands. Proposals could include solutions such as, but not limited to, phyto or mycelial extraction or degradation of pollutants. Solutions that will extract, degrade or transform pollutants must go beyond the state of the art and put forward innovations that demonstrate improvements to the nutritional profile of food and feed, and the quality of the biomass produced
- Soil and soil microbiome management technologies: covers solutions that will increase the soil’s organic carbon stock and its structure to enhance biodiversity, improve water retention and boost fertility and nutrient availability
- Renewable fertilizers and bio stimulants: targets materials that could be produced from waste and residue streams and biomass in innovative, sustainable and circular ways with the help of microorganisms or their biological components, enabling a virtuous cascading approach from agricultural operations or from bio-based industrial processes.
Regardless of the specific area addressed, companies are encouraged to leverage digital tools such as AI and monitoring technologies such as sensors, as appropriate, to facilitate the identification or the development of processes and to reliably assess the evolution of soil health conditions to make the resulting products and services suitable for integration into existing production systems. All projects must provide a lifecycle assessment (LCA) considering environmental, social and economic consideration. Proposals are also expected to consider regulatory aspects alongside issues surrounding consumer acceptance and articulate suitable strategies to support market entry within and beyond the EU. Applicants are encouraged to consider the potential impact of emerging environmental markets on their business, and to explore the strategic opportunities these markets may unlock when paired with innovative business models.
The startups and SMEs supported under this Challenge will be connected through the EIC’s Business Acceleration Services with stakeholders engaged in the EU Mission Soil and with Horizon Europe Cluster 6, including its public-private partnership Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) to support the accelerated uptake of breakthrough solutions
Expected outcomes and impacts
This Challenge aims to scale deep tech solutions that will improve soil health and the sustainability, efficiency, and resilience of the European agricultural sector, which spans food, feed and biomass. Their entry into the market will reverse the declining health of agricultural soils resulting in an enhanced production of high quality, sustainable crops.
By targeting breakthrough solutions, it will also support Europe’s future strategic autonomy and enhance the competitiveness of the sector by helping it overcome challenges linked to climate change and environment stresses including soil biodiversity loss and pollution as well as contributing to boosting biotechnology in the EU.
EIC Work Programme 2026
The EIC Challenges are extensively described in the EIC Work Programme. For more information about this challenge, please go to the corresponding section of the EIC Work Programme.