European crop production is to remain competitive while reducing environmental impacts, requiring development and uptake of effective soil improving cropping systems. The overall aim of SOILCARE is to identify and evaluate promising soil-improving cropping systems and agronomic techniques increasing profitability and sustainability across scales in Europe. A trans-disciplinary approach will be used to evaluate benefits and drawbacks of a new generation of soil improving cropping systems, incorporating all relevant bio-physical, socio-economic and political aspects. Existing information from literature and long term experiments will be analysed to develop a comprehensive methodology for assessing performance of cropping systems at multiple levels. A multi-actor approach will be used to select promising soil-improving cropping systems for scientific evaluation in 16 study sites across Europe covering different pedo-climatic and socio-economic conditions. Implemented cropping systems will be monitored with stakeholder involvement, and will be assessed jointly with scientists. Specific attention will be paid to adoption of soil-improving cropping systems and agronomic techniques within and beyond the study sites. Results from study sites will be up-scaled to the European level to draw general lessons about applicability potentials of soil-improving cropping systems and related profitability and sustainability impacts, including assessing barriers for adoption at that scale. An interactive tool will be developed for end-users to identify and prioritize suitable soil-improving cropping systems anywhere in Europe. Current policies and incentives will be assessed and targeted policy recommendations will be provided. SOILCARE will take an active dissemination approach to achieve impact from local to European level, addressing multiple audiences, to enhance crop production in Europe to remain competitive and sustainable through dedicated soil care.

Time is running out to achieve a more sustainable development. Post COVID-19 economic stimuli need to deploy a green new deal (GND) that ReSETs economic systems to create secure and meaningful employment whilst protecting nature for people, for climate change and flood mitigation, temperature regulation, pollution prevention and soil and biodiversity conservation. This green new deal needs to harness safe, renewable technologies and nature-based solutions. A business as usual (BAU) post-COVID stimulus would embed employment, economic and environmental precarity in what is now fundamentally an unsustainable and unequitable model. RESET aims to leverage developments in spatial modelling, artificial intelligence and interoperable environmental sensing to better understand pathways to RESET agricultural and urban development across Europe for sustainability. For agriculture we will examine BAU versus an alternative trajectory of regenerative agriculture and rewilding. For cities we will examine BAU vs a more telecommuting focused trajectory of lowered densities, re-greening, traffic reduction to reduce (air, water, noise) pollution and improve the quality of urban life. In all cases we will examine impacts on employment, environment and economy. We focus on farmland and urban land uses as understudied environments and as key for sustainable development. We will build upon the success of our previous work in developing spatial policy support systems and accompanying user-led design processes, to further develop and integrate advanced environmental sensor networks with a focus on per-person individualised employment, economic and environmental outcomes of investments. This will require environmental and social intelligence to an unprecedented degree bringing together environmental modelling, advanced sensor research, social science and stakeholders’ engagement, and artificial intelligence to go way beyond conventional environmental impact assessment approaches.