NOVAsoil: Innovative business models for a sustainable future

Providing the evidence needed to put soil health at the heart of commercial land management.

About

This project uses diverse research expertise to evaluate the evidence base behind a broad range of land management practices and provides advice on soil health management. A business toolkit has also been developed co-designed by an international community of practice. 

The EU Soil Strategy for 2030 highlights the need to protect and restore soils to avoid a reduction in the key ecosystem services provided by healthy soils. Novasoil brings together a diverse cohort of researchers and industry experts to navigate the complexities of harnessing sustainable soil management in a business context.

The project received €4 million of funding from the European Union to provide a unique opportunity to change the way we view soil management from the perspective of commercial use, providing evidence to ensure that policy and practices are in line with the latest and most robust research in the field.

Project partners have developed a conceptual framework for soil health, identified existing business models which promote soil health and organised dissemination events to share knowledge amongst managers and stakeholders.

The project team from the University of Leeds conducted a robust assessment of the consistency and magnitude of soil health improvements under contrasting climate zones and management practices. Their report provides a synthesis of the evidence and quantified results from hundreds of field sites across Europe, and will ensure that future outputs and advice from Novasoil are based on a strong evidence base. The Novasoil report benefitted from work conducted for a previous iCASP Evidence Review on Soil Health.

Findings from Novasoil are highly relevant to land managers and industry stakeholders. Future work will include a policy workshop, collation of findings into a knowledge hub available to the public and ongoing dissemination events to ensure that the advice proposed by the project is of use to the general public.

Project webpage

Please visit NOVASOIL PROJECT EU if you are interested in hearing about future updates from Novasoil.

Partners

Evenor-Tech
Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)
Zemniekusaeima
New Bulgarian University
University of Leeds
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Københavns Universitet
Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Assemblee des Regions Europeennes Fruitiere Legumières et Horticoles
Istituto Delta Ecologia Applicata
Università Degli Studi di Ferrara
Wageningen University
Eesti Taimekasvatuse Instituut
Univeridad Politécnica de Madrid
Universita da Pisa
Asociación Agraria de Jovenes Agricultores de Sevilla

Project team

• María Anaya-Romero
• Félix Ángel Gonzáles Peñalosa
• Fernando Alonso
• Javier Bravo Garciá
• Francisco Jose Blanco Velazquez

• Cheng Chen
• Ferdinand Lang
• Bettina Matzdorf

• Inga Berzina

• Ivan Boevsky
• Dimitre Nikolov
• Ekatherina Tzetanova
• Krasimir Kostenarov
• Kristina Todorova

• Pippa Chapman
• Joseph Holden
• Catriona Willoughby
• Guy Ziv

• Alexandra Langlais-Hesse
• Emmanuele Moy
• Alix Vollet 

• Thomas Lundhede
• Søren Bøye Olsen
• Mohammed Hussen Alemu

• Fabian Frick
• Philipp Menning
• Carina Obergrobner
• Johannes Sauer

• Luca Contrino

• Shade Amini
• Cristina Barbieri
• Daria Boldrin
• Gloria Minarelli

• Enrica Allevato
• Fabio Bartolini
• Silva Rita Stazi
• Greta Winkler

• Liesbeth Dries
• Insa Thiermann

• Tiina Koster
• Kalvi Tamm
• Kerttu Tammik
• Merili Toom
• Taavi Võsa 

• Ana Iglesias
• Luis Garrote
• Alvaro Sordo Ward

• Daniele Antichi
• Gianluca Brunori
• Michele Moretti
• Roberta Moruzzo
• Luciano Pagano
• Silvia Tavarini
• Daniele Vergamini 

• José Fernando Robles