The SOILUTIONS is an EU Horizon project involving eleven partners from four different European countries that work together to foster the access to market of bio-waste derived soil improvers and fertilizers
The challenge
Soil health is considered a global emergency, and up to 70% of EU soils are degraded due to unsustainable management practices and the overuse of synthetic chemicals. SOILUTIONS aims to provide sustainable alternatives derived from biowaste, utilising a circular economy approach.
What SOILUTIONS proposes
The SOILUTIONS team will validate and optimise four bio-based circular value chains to produce bio-waste soil improvers containing fertilizers developed in previous EU projects, including ValueWaste, coordinated by CETENMA. These fertilizers are hygenised animal blood, frass, N-struvite and K-struvite.
The product development phase will be accompanied by Living Labs that aim to ensure that the developed soil improvers answer the needs of the market and are compliant with regulatory and societal expectations. Living labs will be established in Flanders, Valencia and Murcia, being the latter coordinated by CETENMA, and this co-creation will bring together producers, end-users, research centres, public bodies and civil society.
CETENMA will also lead the design of an upscaling roadmap and a circular business model for each valorisation route to engage entrepreneurs and relevant soil companies to foster the commercialisation of advanced bio-waste soil improvers across the EU.
SOILUTIONS is part of the EU’s Horizon Europe Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ which will establish 100 living labs and lighthouses to lead the transition towards healthy soils by 2030.
Follow the project’s progress on Twitter and LinkedIn. More details on the project’s objectives and achievements will soon be available at www.soilutions-project.eu
About SOILUTIONS
The SOILUTIONS project is funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and will run for three years, from June 2023 to May 2026.
11 partners will work on the project: S.A. Agricultores De Lavega De Valencia (Coordinator – Spain), NuReSys (Belgium), CETENMA (Spain), GAIKER (Spain), Draxis Environmental (Greece), Greenovate! Europe (Belgium), Collaborating Centre On Sustainable Consumption And Production – CSCP (Germany), Las Naves (Spain), Entomo Consulting (Spain), Ghent University (Belgium), Fertiberia (Spain).
