Urgent and concerted action can stop and reverse unsustainable land use and the over-exploitation of land resources. This will however require rapid, simultaneous and coordinated action by a diversity of land use decision makers. MOSAIC aims therefore to achieve the following objectives:
1. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the motivations and drivers behind land use decisions (e.g. cultural factors, social identities, cognitive frameworks, market prices, legal frameworks, etc.), including their relative importance and interactions, within and between relevant governance levels, ranging from individual land managers to supra-national organisations.
2. To gain a thorough understanding of the awareness of key land use decision makers about climate change, biodiversity loss and renewable energy challenges, and their willingness to address these challenges.
3. To characterise future land use patterns based on spatial, social and economic models that integrate key insights into the motivations and drivers behind land use related decisions and the result of these decisions in causing displacement effects, i.e. indirect land use changes in other parts of the world.
4. To support policy design and implementation for climate change, renewable energy and biodiversity, by means of innovative cost-effective instruments and approaches co-created in policy labs contributing to and elaborating on MOSAIC’s research results in a transdisciplinary way.
5. To develop an interactive digital learning environment, embedded within a digital toolbox comprising proven technologies and approaches consistent with long-term European sustainability goals and strategies to support land use decision processes at governance levels ranging from local to supra-national scales.
Interdisciplinary SSH research linked to state-of-the-art land use modelling will be core to this project, and will be embedded in a transdisciplinary research approach based on policy labs.
Project ID
Funding period
1 September 2023 - 29 February 2028Total budget
EU contribution
Funding programme
Call for proposals
Type of action
Type of stakeholder
Project contribution to Mission Soil’s:
Specific objectives
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1. Reduce land degradation relating to desertification
Not targeted -
2. Conserve and increase soil organic carbon stocks
Not targeted -
3. No net soil sealing and increase the reuse of urban soils
Not targeted -
4. Reduce soil pollution and enhance restoration
Not targeted -
5. Prevent erosion
Not targeted -
6. Improve soil structure to enhance habitat quality for soil biota and crops
Partially targeted -
7. Reduce the EU global footprint on soils
Not targeted -
8. Increase soil literacy in society across Member States
Targeted
Operational objectives
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1. Build capacities and the knowledge base for soil stewardship
Partially targeted
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2. Co-create and upscale place-based innovations to improve soil health in all places
Not targeted
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3. Develop an integrated EU soil monitoring system and track progress towards soil health
Not targeted
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4. Engage with the soil user community and society at large
Partially targeted
Innovation hotspots
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1. Carbon farming
Not targeted
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2. Soil pollution and restoration
Not targeted
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3. Soil biodiversity including the microbiome
Targeted
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4. Circular economy solutions
Not targeted
Cross-cutting dimensions
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1. Business
Not targeted
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2. Digital
Partially targeted
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3. Territorial
Not targeted
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4. International
Partially targeted
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