Integrating soil organic matter functionality, biodiversity, and digital tools to enhance soil health and crop resilience across Europe: the SOILRES approach

Soil organic matter (SOM) plays a central role in regulating soil health, biodiversity, and agroecosystem resilience, yet its functionality is increasingly threatened by intensive agrochemical inputs and climate change. The SOILRES project, funded under Horizon Europe and aligned with the EU Mission Soil, addresses these challenges by promoting sustainable management strategies that leverage SOM dynamics, soil biodiversity, and soil–plant–microbiome interactions.

SOILRES adopts an integrated, multi-scale approach combining stakeholder co-creation, agroecological innovation, and digital technologies to develop measurable and actionable indicators of soil health. Participatory processes will identify local priorities and requirements, while novel organic amendments, bioinoculants, and biostimulants will be developed to enhance SOM functionality and biological processes. These solutions will be validated through coordinated field trials across six case studies and seven demonstration sites spanning five European agro-climatic zones (Atlantic, Boreal, Continental, Pannonian, and Mediterranean).

Field experiments will assess SOM-related properties and functions, soil biodiversity indicators, agronomic performance, and environmental impacts, complemented by techno-economic analyses to identify barriers and enablers for scaling sustainable practices. Proximal sensing, UAV, and satellite data will be harmonized to derive dynamic indicators (e.g. soil organic carbon, tillage practices) and integrated into soil–plant–climate modeling frameworks to evaluate management and climate scenarios with explicit uncertainty estimation.

By linking mechanistic evidence on SOM processes to operational indicators relevant for policy implementation (Soil Health Law), SOILRES aims to support the transition toward reduced chemical inputs, enhanced soil biodiversity, and resilient European agroecosystems.