From Lab to Field: bioSOILUTIONS Circular Soil Improvers Ready to Be Tested in Real Life Conditions

Over the past two years, bioSOILUTIONS partners have worked toward a shared ambition: creating circular, biowaste-based soil improvers to help stop the ongoing degradation of soils in Europe.

Through regular exchanges in the Living Labs in Valencia and Murcia in Spain and Flanders in the Netherlands, farmers, local administrators, researchers and other stakeholders have openly shared their needs, hopes, concerns, and insights that have guided the development process from day one.

These joint efforts have resulted in five promising soil improvers ready for real-world testing. At the second bioSOILUTIONS impact board meeting in November 2025, project partners from all three Living Labs came together to discuss the validation processes with farmers.

To build trust and foster strong collaboration with farmers, participants emphasised the importance of involving them early on and continuously in the design of field validation processes, providing sufficient information about the soil improvers, and offering compensation whenever possible.

Building on these discussions about farmer engagement, the project also presented a questionnaire designed to capture farmers’ feedback and perceptions of the soil improvers after field testing. Living Lab actors stressed a solid trust-based relationship with farmers is a prerequisite to collecting meaningful feedback. For this reason, they recommended keeping the questionnaire anonymous and straightforward to encourage full and honest participation.

As bioSOILUTIONS enters this exciting next phase, the real-world field tests will reveal how the soil improvers perform under everyday farming conditions, bringing the project one step closer to supporting healthier soils across Europe.

For additional information on the bioSOILUTIONS project, please visit the project website.

For further questions, please contact Livia El-Khawad.