The European Mission "A Soil Deal for Europe" promotes Living Labs as key instruments to accelerate the transition towards sustainable agricultural systems through stakeholder engagement, co-creation and real-world experimentation. While numerous Living Labs are being established across Europe, practical experience remains limited regarding how to identify, support and evaluate diverse innovation initiatives at territorial scale.
This contribution presents the approach developed within the French Living Lab located in the Landes (South-West France), where twelve agricultural experimentation projects involving 25 farms has been funded and supported 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, biodiversity, water regulation, resilience to climatic stresses and overall soil functionality.
This work examines the Living Lab as an innovation ecosystem. We describe the process used to engage stakeholders, identify local priorities, select original ideas, allocate resources and establish a common framework for monitoring and knowledge exchange. Attention is given to the challenge of creating coherence across heterogeneous experiments while preserving the flexibility required to respond to local pedoclimatic and socio-economic contexts.
The French Landes Living Lab provides an opportunity 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 aims to transform innovations into transferable / replicable knowledge capable of supporting territorial-scale transitions.
Preliminary observations highlight the value of farmer-driven experimentation, multi-actor governance and continuous interaction between researchers, advisors and practitioners. The experience also reveals important challenges related to monitoring harmonization, scaling-up successful practices and balancing scientific robustness with operational feasibility.
The contribution offers practical lessons for other European Living Labs seeking to move from isolated demonstration projects towards coordinated territorial innovation strategies that support the long-term objectives of soil health restoration and sustainable land management.