BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//pretalx//pretalx.earthmonitor.org//soil-health-now-2026//EERD7T BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Athens BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20001029T040000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10 TZNAME:EET TZOFFSETFROM:+0300 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20000326T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:EEST TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0300 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:pretalx-soil-health-now-2026-KMDZEF@pretalx.earthmonitor.org DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Athens:20261209T143000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Athens:20261209T144500 DESCRIPTION:The European Mission "A Soil Deal for Europe" promotes Living L abs as key instruments to accelerate the transition towards sustainable ag ricultural systems through stakeholder engagement\, co-creation and real-w orld experimentation. While numerous Living Labs are being established acr oss Europe\, practical experience remains limited regarding how to identif y\, support and evaluate diverse innovation initiatives at territorial sca le.\nThis contribution presents the approach developed within the French L iving Lab located in the Landes (South-West France)\, where twelve agricul tural experimentation projects involving 25 farms has been funded and supp orted to address soil health challenges under real farming conditions. The projects cover a diversity of production systems and innovation pathways\ , including practices aimed at improving soil organic matter\, biodiversit y\, water regulation\, resilience to climatic stresses and overall soil fu nctionality.\nThis work examines the Living Lab as an innovation ecosystem . We describe the process used to engage stakeholders\, identify local pri orities\, select original ideas\, allocate resources and establish a commo n framework for monitoring and knowledge exchange. Attention is given to t he challenge of creating coherence across heterogeneous experiments while preserving the flexibility required to respond to local pedoclimatic and s ocio-economic contexts.\nThe French Landes Living Lab provides an opportun ity to explore how a portfolio-based approach can generate learning beyond individual experiments. By connecting projects through shared objectives\ , common indicators and collective reflection processes\, the Living Lab a ims to transform innovations into transferable / replicable knowledge capa ble of supporting territorial-scale transitions.\nPreliminary observations highlight the value of farmer-driven experimentation\, multi-actor govern ance and continuous interaction between researchers\, advisors and practit ioners. The experience also reveals important challenges related to monito ring harmonization\, scaling-up successful practices and balancing scienti fic robustness with operational feasibility.\nThe contribution offers prac tical lessons for other European Living Labs seeking to move from isolated demonstration projects towards coordinated territorial innovation strateg ies that support the long-term objectives of soil health restoration and s ustainable land management. DTSTAMP:20260825T180317Z LOCATION:Amphitheater II SUMMARY:From Funding Individual Projects to Building a Territorial Innovati on Portfolio: Lessons from 25 Experimental Sites in the French Landes Livi ng Lab - Wafa Guiga URL:https://pretalx.earthmonitor.org/soil-health-now-2026/talk/KMDZEF/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:pretalx-soil-health-now-2026-NBFHW9@pretalx.earthmonitor.org DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Athens:20261207T170000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Athens:20261207T180000 DESCRIPTION:The European Mission "A Soil Deal for Europe" highlights the ne ed for robust\, scalable and operational indicators capable of supporting soil health assessment across diverse agricultural systems. While physical and chemical soil properties are routinely monitored\, biological indicat ors remain underused despite their central role in ecosystem functioning a nd agricultural sustainability.\nThis study presents the establishment of a biological soil health baseline within the French Living Lab located in the Landes (South-West France). A total of 135 soil samples were collected across 25 farms representing a diversity of agricultural systems and pedo climatic conditions. Three complementary biological indicators were assess ed: total microbial abundance\, relative microbial biodiversity and dehydr ogenase activity as a proxy for overall microbial metabolic activity.\nThe objective was not only to characterize the current biological status of s oils across the territory\, but also to evaluate the potential of combinin g these indicators into an operational framework for long-term soil health monitoring within a Living Lab context. Attention was given to the relati onships among community size\, biodiversity and biological activity\, as w ell as to the variability observed between farms and management contexts.\ nResults reveal substantial spatial heterogeneity across the territory\, h ighlighting the diversity of biological soil conditions encountered under real farming situations. Preliminary analyses indicate that microbial abun dance\, biodiversity and enzymatic activity provide complementary rather t han redundant information\, suggesting that multiple biological dimensions should be considered when assessing soil health. The data further demonst rate the feasibility of deploying harmonized biological monitoring at terr itorial scale and provide a reference point against which future changes a ssociated with soil health interventions can be evaluated.\nBeyond the cha racterization of current conditions\, this work contributes to ongoing eff orts to identify practical biological indicators for soil health assessmen t and monitoring. The baseline established through this study will support the evaluation of future innovations implemented within the Living Lab an d offers a framework that could be replicated in other European territorie s engaged in the transition towards healthy soils. DTSTAMP:20260825T180317Z LOCATION:Basement (Foyer) SUMMARY:Can Biological Indicators Capture Soil Health Differences Across Fa rming Systems? Evidence from 135 Samples in the French Living Lab - Wafa G uiga URL:https://pretalx.earthmonitor.org/soil-health-now-2026/talk/NBFHW9/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR