Our soils are suffering from the limitation and mismanagement of soil resources, from soil degradation, drought, retention, erosion or sealing. A sustainable improvement of soil health can only be achieved by increasing soil literacy and raising people’s awareness on the vital importance of soil.

LOESS – Literacy boost through an Operational Educational Ecosystem of Societal actors on Soil health, a project funded under Horizon Europe in the EU Mission: ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, brings together representatives from twenty partner organisations coming from 16 European countries. LOESS connects and engages with multiple actors in Communities of Practice (CoPs) to provide an overview of the current level of soil related knowledge in different educational levels. Pedagogical techniques will be co-created and tested across the EU and Associated Countries to encourage effective knowledge flows and discourse between educators and learners and between scientific, political, individual local and collective cultural knowledge systems. Hands-on activities related to soil education and Community Engaged Research and Learning will be promoted through focused campaigns and events and supported by capacity building, knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer learning.