Developing transfer functions for the Soil Monitoring Law

Activities under this topic will help to progress towards the objectives of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ and the proposed Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience (Soil Monitoring Law – SML)^[1], by integrating different soil monitoring systems for a harmonised soil health assessment in the EU. It will also support the implementation of the EU Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation^[2] by facilitating the interoperability of soil organic carbon data across the EU and thus harmonising the production and use of soil datasheets for monitoring, reporting and verification in carbon farming, including statistics and maps.

Project results are expected to significantly contribute to all the following outcomes:

• Stakeholders have access to validated transfer functions for all soil descriptors included in the SML proposal, enabling compatibility, interoperability, and comparability of data for laboratorial and field methods used in the EU that differ from those prescribed in Annex II of the proposal.
• National monitoring programmes, Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS) and protocols (e.g. ISO/CEN) included in the SML proposal are integrated by interoperability, enabling harmonised soil health assessments across the EU by using the existing monitoring schemes in Member States and at EU level.
• Enhanced understanding of the applicability of statistical methods for combining soil data collected with different protocols, to produce harmonised EU statistics and maps.

The proposed Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience (Soil Monitoring Law – SML) aims to put in place a coherent and integrated soil monitoring framework for all soils across the EU. However, currently there are many different methods in the EU to monitor and assess soil health, from sampling to laboratorial procedures, and some Member States have long-standing soil monitoring systems and procedures which they prefer to keep for economic reasons and to safeguard long-term datasets.

Validated transfer functions are therefore needed to reliably convert soil measurements to a common reference method and to facilitate a smooth and cost-effective transition to a harmonized soil health assessment across the EU. Some knowledge on transfer functions is already established for certain soil physical and hydraulic properties, but existing knowledge does not cover the entire combination of laboratorial and field methods available across the EU for all the soil descriptors present in the SML proposal.

Proposed activities should:

• Identify and collect the information available in existing samples archives such as LUCAS.
• Develop and test, together with Member State monitoring bodies, transfer functions for all descriptors proposed in the SML proposal (e.g. soil organic carbon, excess nutrient content, soil acidity, pH, P-Olsen, Electrical conductivity, bulk density, etc.) and for the diverse methods used for field sampling collection (including sampling depth) and analysis different than those prescribed in the SML proposal. Identify conversion factors to transform data from one method to another.
• Compare results obtained by different sampling protocols and laboratorial procedures, and link national monitoring systems with LUCAS outputs and the protocols of ISO/CEN and others included in the SML proposal.
• Determine the most reliable statistical methods for combining soil data collected with different sampling protocols and analytical methodologies to produce harmonised and comprehensive statistics and maps.
• Validate transfer functions by sampling a subset of the LUCAS 2022 locations, covering at least 21 MS and 80% of the EU land surface area and analogous to LUCAS in terms of land cover and climate regions. Α minimum of 30% of the budget must be allocated for the sampling and analysing of at least 4000 samples.

A strong collaboration is expected with the Joint Research Centre to identify and access existing samples archives and to make sure that relevant data, maps and information can be used and displayed by the EU Soil Observatory. Proposals should demonstrate a route towards open access, longevity, sustainability and interoperability of knowledge and outputs through close collaboration with the Joint Research Centre’s EU Soil Observatory (EUSO), SoilWise project. and the JRC Life Cycle Assessment group^[3].

Concrete efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of the funded project is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable), particularly in the context of real-time data feeds, exploring workflows that can provide “FAIR-by-design” data, i.e., data that is FAIR from its generation. Proposals are encouraged to consider, where relevant, the data, expertise and services offered by European research infrastructures in the environment, biological & food domains or imaging capacities^[4].

When dealing with transfer functions, actions should promote the highest standards of transparency and openness, as much as possible going well beyond documentation and extending to aspects such as assumptions, protocols, code and data, that is managed in compliance with the previously mentioned FAIR principles.

Proposals should include dedicated tasks and appropriate resources for coordination measures and joint activities with other relevant EU-funded initiatives, specially under the Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”, including engagement with the relevant cluster activities. Likewise, projects should build on the results and data collected in previous related EU-funded initiatives, such as EJP SOIL.

In this topic, the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

[1] COM/2023/416 final, see EUR-Lex - 52023PC0416 - EN - EUR-Lex

[2] COM/2024/3012, see Regulation - EU - 2024/3012 - EN - EUR-Lex

[3] See European Platform on LCA | EPLCA

[4] The catalogue of European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) research infrastructures portfolio can be browsed from ESFRI website https://ri-portfolio.esfri.eu/.