⏳ Challenge Submission Guidelines

Why Should CoP Members Submit a Challenge?

The SoilTribes Bootcamp offers a unique opportunity to transform local ideas into powerful, co-created initiatives for soil literacy and systemic change. By submitting a challenge, you join a European ecosystem of peers and institutions dedicated to reshaping our relationship with soil. Your initiative will benefit from mentorship, visibility, and cross-sector collaboration across the four helix model: Civil Society, Public Sector, Academia, Education & Research, and Business with a focus on Social & Cooperative Economy.

Up to 10 participants per helix will be invited to attend the first Bootcamp in person, with all travel and accommodation expenses fully covered. Furthermore, 4 outstanding challenges will receive €5,000 in production support and an invitation to Bootcamps 2 and 3, with expenses also covered.

📅 Timeline & Submission Phases

The SoilTribes Bootcamp process is structured into five key phases. Below is a breakdown of the timeline and what each phase entails:

Phase 1: Challenge Call Launch

🗓 June 26th – August 3d
We invite members of the Community of Practice (CoP) to submit challenges via the online submission platform. Guidelines, templates, and typologies will be shared to support challenge design.

Phase 2: Challenge Selection

🗓 August 3d – August 11th
A selection committee will review all submitted challenges based on the published criteria and priorities. Two challenges will be selected per helix (Public Sector, Civil Society, Social & Cooperative Economy, Academia & Research).

Phase 3: Call for Contributors

🗓 Starting August 20th
Selected challenges will be published and the broader CoP will be invited to join them. We aim to curate balanced working groups of up to 10 contributors per helix.

Phase 4: Bootcamp Preparation

🗓 September 10th
Selected contributors will be announced on September 10th. The full Bootcamp cohort will be convened on September 18th to prepare, align, and co-create a shared space for collaboration. Facilitators will also be briefed and teams matched with mentors.

Phase 5: Bootcamp

🗓 October 7th to late October
Challenge teams will meet in person for Bootcamp 1, a hands-on design sprint and deliberation space.
The process concludes with the selection of 4 prototypes on October 22nd, which will receive further support and join Bootcamps 2 and 3.

🧬 The Four Pillars of the SoilTribes Ecosystem

(based on the four-helix model)

SoilTribes is grounded in collaboration across four major societal actors—our pillars—who together co-shape strategies for just, democratic, and regenerative soil governance. These pillars reflect the four-helix model, which promotes systemic innovation by bridging the worlds of policy, science, civil society, and economy.

At the heart of this ecosystem lies a shared goal: advancing soil literacy. All proposals, challenge submissions, and participatory processes should contribute to a deeper understanding of soil as a living, political, and cultural commons. Soil is not just a resource; it is a relationship.

🔹 1. Public Sector (Institutions & Administrations)

Municipalities, regional agencies, and national public bodies play a vital role in enabling democratic innovation, scaling commons-based approaches, and embedding outcomes into policy frameworks.

🔹 2. Academic, Education & Research Institutions

Universities and research centers contribute with rigorous methods, frameworks for reflection, and critical tools for mapping impacts, making knowledge accessible, and supporting evidence-based decisions.

🔹 3. Civil Society & Grassroots Movements

Community associations, grassroots initiatives, Indigenous and local knowledge holders bring situated, relational expertise and ensure participatory processes remain inclusive, plural, and rooted in care.

🔹 4. Social Economy & Social Business

Cooperatives, solidarity economy networks, CSAs, and mission-driven enterprises experiment with new models of value, care, and scale. Their involvement ensures that economic innovation supports regeneration, not extraction.

🔍 Selection Committee Composition and Oversight

Challenge submissions will be reviewed and preselected by four dedicated pillar teams, each composed of expert representatives from partner networks aligned with the SoilTribes helix model:

• Civic Society → ECSA (European Citizen Science Association)

• Academia, Education & Research → Office for Climate Education (OCE)

• Public Sector → ICLEI Europe

• Social & Cooperative Economy → European Rural Development Network (ENRD)

In addition, the Platoniq Foundation, as the lead for the Bootcamp design, methodology, facilitation process, and overarching coordination of the call, will play a central role in shaping the selection logic and ensuring coherence across pillars. Platoniq will also participate in the preselection deliberations.

The SoilTribes project coordinator, INOVA+, will hold one vote in the final selection process to ensure alignment with the overall project strategy and priorities.

✅ Challenge Selection Criteria

The selection of challenges for the SoilTribes Bootcamp is grounded in coherence, contribution, and commitment. We are not merely collecting promising ideas—we are assembling a living ecology of practice that reflects the values and diversity of the SoilTribescommunity.

Each challenge will be assessed against the following criteria:

1. Relevance to the 🌱 SoilTribes Bootcamp Priorities

The challenge must directly respond to one or more of the SoilTribesBootcamp Priority Areas:

• Soil Democracy

• Territorial Justice

• Commons Stewardship

• Regenerative Transitions

It should also clearly contribute to soil literacy, while connecting—explicitly or implicitly—with one or more of the goals of the EU Soil Strategy for 2030 (e.g. restoring polluted soils, reusing urban soil, preventing erosion, increasing biodiversity, etc.).

2. Clarity and Specificity

The challenge must clearly explain the problem, the local or systemic context, and why it matters now. Challenges that are too abstract or too broad will be difficult to match with collaborators.

3. Transformative Potential

We prioritise challenges that show potential to transform systems or narratives, whether by activating new alliances (Pores), proposing long-term structural change (Roots), surfacing pressure points (Cracks), or piloting something with ripple effects (Seeds).

4. Replicability / Seed Quality

Even if rooted in a specific place, the challenge should have elements that others can learn from, adapt, or reproduce. Proposals with strong replicability or potential to inspire similar actions elsewhere will be favoured.

5. Commitment to Follow-Up

This is not a one-off. Selected challenge owners must commit to:

• Participating in Bootcamp v1

• Engaging actively with their working group

• Following through on post-bootcamp phases (e.g. mentorship, documentation, or future bootcamps if selected)

6. Adequation to the Four Pillars

The challenge should be situated within or supported by at least one of the SoilTribes four pillars:

• Public Sector institutions

• Academia and Research

• Civil Society and Grassroots movements

• Social Economy and Social Businesses

We especially value challenges that bridge multiple pillars or offer entry points for trans-sector collaboration.

7. Diversity & Ecosystem Fit

We seek a coherent but diverse ecosystem of challenges across:

• Geographies

• Social and ecological contexts

• Typologies (Seeds, Roots, Cracks, Pores)

• Gender and inclusion perspectives

• Helix representation
  
  

We are not aiming to select the “best” challenges in isolation—but those that make sense together.

🌱 SoilTribesBootcamp: Priority Areas for Challenge Submissions

To be considered for the SoilTribes  bootcamp, each challenge must align with at least one of the project’s four priority areas. These priorities define the political, ecological, and democratic vision guiding the initiative. They are also directly connected to the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, ensuring your proposals contribute to larger continental goals while remaining grounded in local, community-based realities.

1. Soil Democracy

We are seeking challenges that democratize land use, support collective decision-making, and give voice to those most affected by soil degradation or land exclusion.

Relevant subthemes include:

• Democratic governance of soil and land use

• Participatory responses to soil pollution and degradation
  (EU alignment: “Reduce soil pollution and enhance restoration”)

• Community rewilding and re-use of urban soils
  (EU alignment: “Stop soil sealing and increase re-use of urban soils”)

2. Territorial Justice

Challenges under this priority focus on addressing spatial inequalities and socio-environmental vulnerabilities, especially in rural, peri-urban, and structurally excluded regions.

Relevant subthemes include:

• Addressing desertification and drought through inclusive access and care
  (EU alignment: “Reduce desertification”)

• Preventing soil erosion in marginalized or fragile territories
  (EU alignment: “Prevent erosion”)

• Supporting land justice for underrepresented communities

3. Commons Stewardship

We support initiatives that promote collective responsibility for soil as a shared, living resource.
Relevant subthemes include:

• Community-based conservation of soil carbon and biodiversity
  (EU alignment: “Conserve soil organic carbon stocks”, “Improve soil structure to enhance soil biodiversity”)

• Commons-based erosion control and care practices

• Stewardship of neglected soils through local alliances

4. Regenerative Transitions

This priority welcomes proposals that reimagine socio-economic models to sustain soil health while addressing global environmental responsibilities.
Relevant subthemes include:

• Agroecological and circular economy innovations
  (EU alignment: “Improve soil structure to enhance soil biodiversity”, “Conserve soil organic carbon stocks”)

• Solidarity economy practices that reduce extractive footprints
  (EU alignment: “Reduce the EU global footprint on soils”)

• Locally driven regenerative infrastructures

To foster strong alignment with the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, the SoilTribespriorities incorporate key EU challenges as sub-classifications within a broader cultural and democratic frame. Below is a mapping of how these policy priorities are rearticulated in community-centred terms

🧪 What Kind of Actions and Outputs Are We Looking For?

Challenges submitted to the SoilTribes Bootcamp should not only address the thematic priorities, but also generate meaningful outputs that strengthen soil literacy, foster participation, and activate systemic change.

We welcome a wide diversity of approaches, as long as the proposed actions are clear, feasible, and aligned with the SoilTribesecosystem. Below are the expected types of outputs your initiative might produce. Select the ones most appropriate to your challenge:

🧭 Soil Literacy Methods

Your challenge must propose at least one concrete activity or process that contributes to the following action types:

• Awareness-raising activities and communication campaigns
  e.g. podcasts, infographics, zines, social media content, short videos, media interventions

• Creative soil-related activities and events
  e.g. artistic or cultural actions, creative workshops, site-specific performances, storytelling

• Capacity-building actions
  e.g. workshops, trainings, toolkits, guides, mentorship programs, learning labs

• Policy and advocacy initiatives
  e.g. petitions, citizen observatories, policy briefs, coalition-building actions, manifestos

• Participatory processes
  e.g. forums, assemblies, co-design labs, school programs, deliberative formats

• Development, prototyping, and testing of innovative solutions
  e.g. community composting pilots, soil regeneration techniques, mapping tools, DIY sensors

📌 Note: Challenges can combine more than one method. What matters is the clarity of the pathway and the relevance to both the soil mission and the communities involved.

🌾 How to Frame Your Proposal

In addition to aligning with one of the four priority areas above, all submitted challenges should be framed according to one of our challenge typologies. These typologies help us understand the nature, scale, and strategic intent of each initiative. Inspired by soil metaphors, they reflect different kinds of interventions we want to cultivate, ranging from small experimental projects to long-term structural shifts or participatory spaces.

This classification is not about hierarchy, but diversity of action. Each type plays a vital role in the broader ecology of soil democracy and territorial transformation. When submitting your proposal, please indicate the typology that best fits your challenge:

🔎 What Happens Next?

• In Phase 1, challenges are submitted by CoP members through this open call. A preselection of the most relevant and grounded challenges will be carried out by the Pilar teams.

• In Phase 2, we will launch a call for contributors to join and work on the selected challenges during Bootcamp 1.

• Up to 10 members per pillar (Public Sector, Academia, Civil Society, and Social Economy) will be selected as contributors to the chosen challenges and invited to attend Bootcamp 1 in person, with travel and accommodation expenses fully covered.

• During Bootcamp 1, participants will co-develop strategies, tools, and prototypes in response to the selected challenges.

• At the end of Bootcamp 1, four standout ideas will be awarded €5,000 in production support and accompanied through Bootcamps 2 and 3. Travel and accommodation for these follow-up bootcamps will also be fully covered for the selected project teams.