Innovation Boreal Living Labs &Lighthouses for soil health

Boreal forests and agricultural soils face growing pressure from organic soil overexploitation, biodiversity loss, climate change, and land-use conflicts, reducing productivity and ecosystem services. These challenges are compounded by governance gaps, including the lack of boreal-specific soil health indicators, monitoring framework, and context-adapted solutions. BoreaLSoiL will lead the transition to healthy boreal soils by testing, validating, and implementing co-created, economically viable solutions, embodying  them in 10 key exploitable results (Formalised LL entities; Transferable co-creation protocol; Stakeholder driven driven business models; Soil management guidelines; Monitoring framework; Practitioner friendly monitoring methodology; Participatory systems mapping; LL roadmaps; Actionable policy recommendations; Policy engagement toolkit) to improve resilience, soil health and support provision of ecosystem services. Living Labs (LLs) in Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Sweden will be multi-actor platforms to address local soil health challenges and test tailored solutions. LLs will foster participatory, interdisciplinary R&I through co-creation strategies. BoreaLSoiL contributes to all 4 operational objectives and 5 specific objectives (1, 2, 4, 6, 8) of the EU Soil Mission by implementing: i) Boreal soil LLs, ii) a standardized soil monitoring framework and indicators, iii) soil health decision support, iv) targeted policy support, v) viable businesses and guidelines. BoreaLSoiL’s will bridge the gap between science, practice, and policy, advancing soil health knowledge, delivering practical, evidence-based solutions for informed decision-making. Tailored dissemination and stakeholder engagement will promote solution uptake and support soil-smart policies at local, national, and EU levels. Ultimately, BoreaLSoiL will build capacity, facilitate the sharing of expertise, and ensure long-term impact by sustaining LL vitality and supporting EU policy goals.