The Soils for Europe conference, co-organised by multiple Mission Soil projects, will highlight panels on the Mission Objectives, including cross-cutting sessions aiming to showcase the latest research being developed across Europe. The impact and contributions of scientists, policymakers, land managers, civil society, and industry representatives in research and innovation. 

The following sessions are accepting both oral presentations and posters (see descriptions below):

• Reduce Land Degradation and Desertification
• Preserve and Increase Soil Organic Carbon Stocks
• Prevent Soil Sealing
• Increase Reuse of Urban Soils
• Prevent and Reduce Soil Pollution and Enhance Soil Restoration 
• Prevent Erosion and Improve Soil Structure 
• Improve Soil Literacy and Citizen Engagement 
• Reduce the EU Global Footprint on Soils
• Boost Monitoring and Harmonised Soil Data
• New Technologies and Innovations to Enhance Soil Health 
• Enhance Soil Biodiversity 

Important Dates

SESSION THEMES

Reduce Land Degradation and Desertification

This call for papers invites contributions advancing scientific understanding, innovative mitigation strategies, and integrated land management solutions to reduce land degradation and combat desertification. Submissions should address monitoring tools, policy frameworks, and practical approaches aligned with the EU Soil Mission Objective 1. Emphasis is placed on enhancing soil resilience, ecosystem services, and sustainable land use under increasing climate pressures.

Preserve and Increase Soil Organic Carbon Stocks

Preserve and increase soil organic carbon stocks" highlights soil's role in climate mitigation and sustainable farming. We invite you to compose a session of scientists, land managers and policymakers to explore how SOC conservation supports the EU Soil Strategy 2030 and Soil Mission goals. Participants will hear about SOC dynamics, monitoring, modelling and practical solutions such as reduced tillage, agroforestry and carbon farming, and how integrating biological, technical and socio-economic approaches can improve soil health, resilience and productivity while delivering real climate benefits.

Prevent Soil Sealing

This session addresses the challenge of operationalizing the EU target of "no net soil sealing" in urban areas by focusing on assessment, implementation, and monitoring strategies. It explores methods to evaluate urban soil quality and ecosystem services, approaches for effective desealing interventions, and indicators to monitor progress and compensation outcomes. By integrating scientific, technical, and policy perspectives, the session highlights pathways to prioritize desealing actions and support evidence-based urban planning for resilient and sustainable cities.

Increase Reuse of Urban Soils

This session focuses on the management and reuse of excavated urban soils as a key strategy to reduce landfill disposal and advance circular economy objectives. It explores policy tools, governance approaches, and practical experiences, such as soil passports and soil banks, highlighting both successful and unsuccessful cases across different contexts. Particular attention is given to assessment methods, regulatory frameworks, and the technical, social, and economic barriers to effective soil reuse.

Prevent and Reduce Soil Pollution and Enhance Soil Restoration

Soil pollution represents a major challenge, jeopardizing biodiversity, ecosystem functions, human health and wellbeing, and a healthy, future-proof economy. The session aims to dig into both important recent insights on soil pollution and restoration, as well as discuss key knowledge gaps. A special focus will lie on unearthing available solutions to prevent soil pollution and restore soils, and what is needed to ensure their wide implementation.

Prevent Erosion and Improve Soil Structure

This session highlights recent advances, field applications, and innovative research on soil structural functioning across diverse pedoclimatic zones, soil types, and land use systems. It aims to support system resilience and reduce soil erosion under increasing climate variability. We welcome experimental and applied contributions, including best management practices, modelling, and socio environmental assessments. Interdisciplinary work linking soil science with agronomy, ecology, and environmental management is encouraged. The session fosters dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers committed to protecting soil structure and reducing erosion.

Improve Soil Literacy and Citizen Engagement 

The Soil Literacy sessions will explore how improving soil knowledge, awareness, and engagement across society can support the implementation of European soil policy objectives and sustainable land management. The sessions will address soil literacy as a systemic process linking science, policy, practice, and citizens, with contributions on education, communication, co-creation of knowledge, and assessment frameworks. Particular attention will be given to participatory, inclusive, and innovative approaches that enable behaviour change, inform decision-making, and help embed soil stewardship across governance, planning, and sustainability agendas.

Reduce the EU Global Footprint on Soils

Despite growing attention to the EU's global environmental footprint, impacts on soil health beyond EU borders remain poorly quantified and governed. This session invites contributions that address critical knowledge gaps limiting progress under the EU Soil Mission Objective on global soil footprinting. The session highlights challenges of scale, attribution, and trade-offs between soil functions, climate, biodiversity, and food security. We encourage work identifying global soil-impact hotspots linked to EU consumption and trade. Governance, equity, and alignment with local soil policies in exporting regions are also potential themes. Case studies, modelling approaches, and policy-relevant frameworks are all welcome.

Boost Monitoring and Harmonised Soil Data

Protection of Soil and the monitoring of soil health across the EU is predicated on comprehensive and effective monitoring schemes and harmonized data, both newly- and previously collected. New technologies, networks, and data integrations have the potential to improve and track soil health across the EU. This cross-cutting session will focus on what is need to effective soil monitoring from conceptualization to tools to data integration and more.

New Technologies and Innovations to Enhance Soil Health

Clever innovations in technology This session highlights new technologies and innovations in the areas of agriculture, monitoring, data systems, robotics, AI, and many more related to improving soil health across the EU. 

Enhance Soil Biodiversity

Soil Biodiversity is the lynchpin to soil health and ecosystem services that soil provides. The conservation of soil life has not been a consideration when choosing sites for future conservation, methods of conservation and restoration, and other land management decision-making. This session focuses on the understanding how soil biodiversity can and should be conserved and successful cases of these. All topics within this area will be considered.

Quantifying sustainability and impacts of solutions for soil management and health

This session invites contributions that quantitatively assess the environmental, climate, and socio-economic impacts of circular solutions. Emphasis is placed on life cycle assessment (LCA) and integrated sustainability approaches to circular nutrient and carbon flows, including waste-derived fertilizers, soil improvers, and biostimulants. Relevant contributions may cover the quantification of impacts from the processing and conversion technologies, and product field applications arising through field validation, demonstration activities, and Living Labs.

Instructions to submit an abstract

The first step to submit an abstract is to Create an Account. When you hover over your name in the upper right after creating the account, go to My Submissions to start a new submission.