MONALISA Clustering Workshop: Advancing Soil Health Collaboration Across Europe

On 21 October 2025, the MONALISA Clustering Workshop brought together leading voices in soil research and restoration at CIHEAM Bari (Valenzano, Italy) and online. The hybrid event brought together more than 60 participants representing over 10 EU-funded projects, reinforcing the EU Mission Soil’s collective ambition to restore and protect Europe’s soils.

Projects including SoilTribes, MONALISA, SALAM-MED, InBestSoil, LivingSoil, SoilWise, BIOServicES, EcoFuture, and EARTHONE joined forces to exchange knowledge and strengthen collaboration. The workshop provided a dynamic platform to discuss sustainable land restoration, soil health monitoring, and data governance.

SoilTribes, represented by consortium members from INOVA+, actively contributed to discussions on governance, monitoring, and knowledge exchange practices, highlighting its role in advancing citizen engagement and communication within the Mission Soil Cluster.

The workshop explored key themes around governance, monitoring, and knowledge exchange, with discussions ranging from soil health indicators and citizen science to data interoperability and ethical sharing practices. These exchanges highlighted the importance of aligning methodologies and ensuring that outputs remain accessible and relevant for both policy and practice.

The outcomes underscored the value of collective action. Partnerships among Mission Soil projects were reinforced, with renewed attention to data standardization and joint outreach. Participants agreed to pursue shared indicators for soil health monitoring and to establish common dissemination channels. SoilTribes gained visibility as a contributor to communication and citizen engagement. At the same time, the workshop laid the groundwork for future collaboration through joint events and publications under the EU Mission Soil framework.