2025-04-09, 14:15–14:30, HugoTECH
SOILCRATES is a project funded by HORIZON Research and Innovation to support the implementation of mission A Soil Deal for Europe, running in 2024-2028 and focused on developing innovative solutions to enhance soil quality and promote sustainable soil management practices. Collaborating with leading experts, researchers, and living labs, SOILCRATES aims to address critical challenges related to soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.
Inspired by Socrates’ philosophy of inquiry, dialogue and collective learning, SOILCRATES (Soil-crates) is a collaborative project focused on restoring and preserving soil quality across Europe by developing soil literacy and monitoring soil structure, soil life, and crop-growing conditions of mineral soils. With 21 partners, from academia, agricultural stakeholders, and local authorities, SOILCRATES co-creates, tests and implements sustainable soil practices. This initiative addresses the pressing need to manage soil as a living resource, essential to food security, biodiversity, and climate resilience.
SOILCRATES aims at establishing 4 regional and interconnected user-centred Living Labs (LLs) in
France (Landes), Spain (Granada), Ireland (Southwest Ireland) and the Northern Netherlands (Fryslân, Groningen, Drenthe). The 4 Living Labs aim to function as user-centred, place-based and transdisciplinary research and innovation ecosystems that involve multiple partners (e.g., land managers, scientists, citizens, businesses, and local authorities) to co-design, test, monitor and evaluate solutions in real-life settings for improving soil health. With an integrated approach, the project enables the co-development of solutions in the LL and testing and replication in the Experimental Sites and Lighthouses.
I am a researcher in agroecology at Wageningen Research Field Crops. I mainly work in the North of the Netherlands with farmer groups and our experimental farm in Valthermond. My focus is on cropping systems like strip cropping and intercropping and their impact on soil health, crop
resilience, and biodiversity.
Emiel Elferink is a professor of Sustainable Soil Management at Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences. He studied Biology at the University of Groningen, where he developed an early interest in sustainability issues within agriculture and food production. This led him to specialize in Energy and Environmental Sciences for his graduation.
After completing his PhD, Emiel worked at CLM Research and Advice and Bioclear Earth, where he was involved in integrated research projects at the intersection of agriculture, climate, and soil. In 2016, he joined Van Hall Larenstein as a professor of Sustainable Soil Management.
As a professor, Emiel focuses on developing knowledge and innovations that contribute to healthy soil management. His research group examines how sustainable soil management can help address soil related challenges such as climate change, food security, biodiversity, and water quality.