From 8 to 11 September 2026, the soil health community gathered in Coimbra, Portugal, for the Soils for Europe Conference (SOLO 2026), part of the EU Soil Observatory Stakeholders Forum. From our side, Mahrooz Rezaei, Loubna Alami (Uniwersytet Wageningen), Tuomo Eskelinen (Savonia University) and Giannis Seremetis (Agricultural University of Athens) travelled to Coimbra to represent SOILPROM throughout a busy week: a joint session with sister project PHISHES, a booth at the project fair, a scientific presentation, a poster, and a seat at the policy table.

Co-designing digital tools with PHISHES

On 10 September, SOILPROM and sister project FISZKI co-hosted the roundtable “Modelling Against Soil Pollution via Digital Platforms.” Researchers, technical experts and policymakers compared notes on which digital tools and data for soil health are actually used across Europe, and where the gaps remain. The session was a chance to gather direct input from future users of both projects’ digital platforms, and to strengthen the collaboration between the two teams.

A booth at the Living Labs & Project Fair

On 8 September, SOILPROM held a booth at the Living Labs & Project Fair, hosted in the Botanic Garden of Coimbra alongside dozens of other Mission Soil projects. It gave attendees a first-hand look at SOILPROM’s objectives, demonstration sites and digital platform in development, and was a natural meeting point to connect with other soil health initiatives on site.

Soil microplastics on stage

On 9 September, at the EUSO Forum: Five Years On: Key Insights from the Mission Soil Programme, Loubna Alami, PhD Candidate at Wageningen University & Research, presented “Advances in Soil Microplastic Measurement: Successes and Lessons from Three EU Projects.” Drawing on five years of combined results from MINAGRIS, Soil Health BENCHMARKS i SOILPROM, the talk compared methods for sampling, extraction and µFTIR-based characterisation of microplastics across different soil types, and pointed toward harmonised methodologies to support future soil monitoring policy.

A poster from the field

Tuomo Eskelinen i Giannis Seremetis, together with co-authors Ardita Hoxha-Jahja and Adam Szymkiewicz, presented a poster titled “Sustainability of the SOILPROM Modelling Platform and Decision-Support Tool: Co-creation of a Business Model Using the PREPSOIL Framework.”

The poster looked beyond the science to a question that will determine SOILPROM’s long-term impact: how to make sure the project’s modelling platform and decision-support tool keep being used, hosted and maintained after the project ends. Using the PREPSOIL business model framework, the team ran a five-step participative process (Define, Understand, Co-create, Evaluate, Select & Plan) with modelling experts, DST developers and end-users to draft and test business model alternatives.

Early input from R&D actors, land managers and policy communities pointed to clear expectations: transparent modelling, clear governance, and alignment with soil-policy instruments. Rather than settling on a single preferred model, the multi-criteria and portfolio analysis is steering the project toward a portfolio of complementary hosting, stewardship and collaboration arrangements, better suited to the diversity of actors involved in Mission Soil.

You can find the poster by clicking tutaj.