URSOILL: INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN SOIL RESTORATION THROUGH LIVING LABS
Current status Ongoing (September 2025 / February 2030)
Funding programme EU Horizon, HORIZON-RIA, HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-02
Project budget M€ 12 (Labsimurb budget € 452.699,19)
Keywords Mission Soil, Soil Health, Urban Soils, Soil Restoration, Healthy Soil Living Labs, LivingLabs, Co-creation, Climate Resilience
➡️ More info at: https://ursoill.eu/
Project Overview
🔎 Objective
URSOILL aims to address urban soil restoration challenges by establishing a network of five Living Labs (LLs) across EU cities. These LLs will act as interactive platforms where local stakeholders collaborate to co-create and test innovative solutions for soil health and ecosystem services recovery, including sustainable land management nature-based solutions (NBSs) and new technologies. URSOILL will adopt a multi-actor, interdisciplinary approach, involving city planners, policy makers, civil society, academia and technology providers in the co-creation process to ensure that the solutions developed are scientifically validated and socially and economically viable. URSOILL will help cities become more climate-resilient, sustainable, and livable.
URSOILL will develop innovative solutions for urban soil restoration, tackling challenges such as contamination, sealing, and degradation while enhancing ecosystem services like carbon storage, biodiversity, water regulation, and urban cooling. Solutions will be replicable and scalable across Europe, contributing to the EU’s goal of 100 Living Labs and Lighthouses for soil health by 2030 promoted by the EU Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe (Mission Soil).
Mission’s objectives covered in URSOILL:
– Objective 3 – soil sealing/reuse of urban soil
– Objective 4 – soil pollution/restoration
– Objective 8 – soil literacy
⚒️ What
At the core of the project are five Healthy Soil Living Labs (HSLLs) across Europe, co-created with municipalities, researchers, businesses, and citizens:
➡️ Sweden (Uppsala/Stockholm) – decontamination & de-sealing
➡️ Spain (Vitoria/Forua) – degraded sites & schoolyard naturalisation
➡️ Greece (Kozani/Ptolemaida) – post-industrial restoration & urban farms
➡️ Italy (Milan/Turin) – NbS for soil & biodiversity in metropolitan areas
➡️ Luxembourg (Minett) – industrial soil recovery & soil literacy
🐾 Who
Led by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, the consortium unites 29 partners and will run for 4.5 years.
Dastu Team: Eugenio Morello, Andrea Bortolotti, Farah Makki
Research Structure: Laboratorio di Simulazione Urbana Fausto Curti
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Resarch Innovation Action programme under grant agreement no. 101219012.