Co-Designing a Pan-European Soil Data Service for the Public Good: Democratizing Access, Reuse, and Sharing of Soil Data

Summary of the challenge High-quality, accessible soil data is essential to achieve the EU’s climate, biodiversity, and agricultural goals, but remains fragmented, underutilized, and often out of reach for decision-makers. As Europe moves toward implementing the EU Soil Monitoring Law, the need for a transparent, interoperable, and citizen-oriented soil data infrastructure has never been greater. This challenge aims to test and improve SoilHive’s Discoverability module, a map-based interface designed to democratize access to harmonized soil data. By engaging researchers, policymakers, agronomists, and NGOs in real-world testing, we will evaluate the tool’s performance, uncover gaps, and co-design improvements that support a future of open, collaborative, and actionable soil knowledge. Detailed description Soil is a non-renewable resource on a human timescale, underpinning food security, climate regulation, water filtration, and biodiversity. Yet over 60% of European soils are in an unhealthy state, due in large part to degradation processes like erosion, compaction, and organic carbon loss. Despite growing awareness, one of the key barriers to better soil management is the persistent lack of accessible, standardized, and reusable soil data. The upcoming EU Soil Monitoring Law, a core pillar of the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, mandates Member States to systematically monitor soil health and report on a core set of indicators. This legal and scientific shift demands new tools that not only consolidate data but also make it discoverable, interpretable, and actionable for a wide range of users, from scientists and local authorities to land managers and civil society. To meet this challenge, the Varda Foundation has developed SoilHive, a digital infrastructure designed to make soil data accessible, reusable, and collaborative. The platform is already active and has supported different use cases, demonstrating its potential to bridge gaps between data providers and data users. At the heart of the platform is the Discoverability module, which simplifies the way users engage with multiple complex datasets. Through an intuitive, map-based interface, users can explore soil data availability across space, define areas of interest using multiple methods (e.g. drawing on a map, uploading a GeoJSON, or searching by country or Global Field ID), and immediately see where soil information exists, and where critical gaps remain, via the Data Availability Index (DAI). Critically, users can also filter across and download multiple datasets in just a few clicks, significantly lowering barriers to access and enabling direct reuse of soil information for research, policymaking, land management, or education. This module transforms soil data from a scattered, often inaccessible resource into a collaborative public service supporting soil literacy, territorial planning, and regenerative action. Building on feedback from early adopters, we have identified several areas for improvement within SoilHive, particularly related to interface usability, metadata interpretability, and collaborative functionalities. As we move into the next development phase, which includes the participatory open-sourcing of the platform, we aim to ensure that SoilHive is robust, inclusive, and adaptable to diverse user needs and territorial contexts. The SoilTribes Bootcamp presents an ideal setting to advance this goal. We propose using the Bootcamp as a living lab, where stakeholders from across sectors can engage directly with SoilHive’s current Discoverability module, test its functionality in real-world scenarios, and contribute to the co-design of an enhanced the new prototype. Through this process, we aim to: • Assess usability and effectiveness of the discoverability features for different user groups and purposes. • Identify barriers to soil data reuse, including gaps in functionality, metadata clarity, and user experience. • Gather feedback on how to improve the platform can better support research, policymaking, and land management • Co-design and test new features that align with the broader mission of democratizing access to soil data as a public good Which SoilTribes priority area(s) does your challenge address? Soil Democracy Commons Stewardship Regenerative Transitions How does your challenge respond to the selected SoilTribes priority area(s)? • Soil Democracy: Access to environmental information is a precondition for participatory governance. This challenge advances soil democracy by ensuring that soil data is not just available, but understandable and usable by those most affected by land degradation. • Commons Stewardship: SoilHive treats data as a commons, this challenge tests whether its tools enable fair and transparent access to that commons, and helps improve their function for collective benefit. • Regenerative Transitions: The transition to regenerative land management requires locally relevant, high-quality soil information. This challenge enables more actors to use soil data to design, monitor, and evaluate such transitions. Which EU Soil Mission goal(s) does your challenge contribute to? Prevent erosion Reduce soil pollution / enhance restoration Conserve soil organic carbon Enhance soil biodiversity Reduce EU global soil footprint Challenge typology Roots (deep structural transformation) Expected outputs / actions Participatory processes Prototyping or technical testing Who is involved or affected by the challenge? The challenge engages a wide range of stakeholders who are both data producers and data users: • Soil scientists and research institutions who need access to harmonized data for experimentation and analysis • Government agencies and policy advisors working to design soil protection strategies and comply with EU monitoring obligations • Farmers, agronomists, and cooperatives who use soil data to manage land productively and sustainably • NGOs and grassroots organizations advocating for healthy soils and environmental justice • AgTech companies and financial institutions using data for modeling, certification, and risk assessment By testing the discoverability module across such diverse profiles, we ensure that SoilHive evolves in line with the real, on-the-ground needs of Europe’s soil community Where is your challenge located? Pan-European, with potential application in East Africa and globally Which SoilTribes pillar(s) are you connected to? Business: Social Economy & Cooperative Sector What public policies or institutional frameworks does your challenge engage with or seek to change? • EU Soil Strategy for 2030: We support the strategy’s call for healthy soils to become the norm by 2050 by improving access to high-quality soil data, essential for monitoring, planning, and restoration. • EU Soil Monitoring Law: SoilHive’s discoverability tools are designed to support Member States and stakeholders in complying with the forthcoming legislation, which mandates standardized soil health reporting based on a common set of indicators. • European Green Deal & Farm to Fork Strategy: By promoting transparency, reuse, and evidence-based decision-making, our work contributes to sustainable land use, nature-positive farming, and resilient agri-food systems. • INSPIRE Directive: We aim to strengthen interoperability and spatial data harmonization across Europe, facilitating cross-sectoral integration of soil data into broader environmental monitoring systems. How do you imagine the Bootcamp will benefit your initiative — and others? The Bootcamp offers an invaluable opportunity to put participation into practice. By bringing the platform into a hands-on, transdisciplinary space, we hope to test the boundaries between technical innovation and democratic soil governance. This challenge will allow us to co-develop a tool that’s not only functional but truly usable across sectors and inclusive of different knowledge systems. Participants will gain early access to an evolving open-source infrastructure, contribute to the design of a tool they might later use, and help define new standards for how soil knowledge can be shared, reused, and acted upon.