The CSCP Launches the iCOSHINE Platform to Advance Soil Health Collaboration Around 60% of EU soils are considered unhealthy, threatening our food and water security, biodiversity, and climate resilience. Boosting and scaling hands-on innovations will be essential to addressing this challenge. To enhance knowledge sharing and accelerate innovation, the CSCP, together with its consortium partners from iCOSHELLs, launched iCOSHINE, a Europe-wide platform that provides spaces (both online and in person) for practitioners to exchange knowledge, challenges, and good practices. The goal is to promote continuous learning and collaboration across Soil Health Living Labs, enabling the identification of synergies and trade-offs at both the lab and solution levels from a broad, Europe-wide perspective. In October 2025, stakeholders came together in Bilbao, Spain, for the iCOSHELLs project’s Annual General Assembly. As part of the General Assembly programme, the Basque Living Lab hosted an informative field visit to local soil sampling sites and offered creative soil literacy activities, including a soil-themed escape game. The Living Lab also showcased dedicated collaboration spaces, illustrating how scientific approaches and community engagement can mutually reinforce each other. The knowledge-exchange session of iCOSHINE, which took place on the third day of the General Assembly programme, focused on soil monitoring approaches, exploring the full journey from sampling to solution implementation alongside soil practitioners from other soil projects such as URSOIL and LANDFEED. Living Labs shared how different soil conditions require adaptable sampling strategies that still meet scientific standards. Discussions emphasised the importance of harmonisation and robust baseline sampling for meaningful, long-term tracking of soil health. Participants collectively identified a range of insights with potential for wider adoption, including the use of bio-acoustic monitoring to assess soil health, low-cost assessment tools for land managers, and co-creation approaches that enhance community involvement. Robust baseline datasets were recognized as valuable resources that extend beyond individual project timelines, while straightforward local methods for soil recovery highlighted the effectiveness of low-resource, context-specific innovation. At the same time, the session helped further structure the learning process for the iCOSHELLs project. Together, these insights demonstrate how iCOSHINE is helping to anticipate challenges beyond the project, improve approaches and scale up successful practices, bringing Europe closer to achieving the shared mission of restoring soil health. Our iCOSHELLs project laid the foundation for the iCOSHINE platform. Funded by the EU Horizon programme, the project directly supports the EU Mission A Soil Deal for Europe, aiming for healthier soils by 2030. The next iCOSHINE session scheduled for early 2026 will focus on soil literacy. Are you an actor working on soil health and interested in exploring and co-creating solutions to increase soil awareness? Then register here to join our next iCOSHINE meeting! To stay up to date with our work as part of iCOSHELLs, please follow the project on LinkedIn and website. For further questions, please contact Dr. Britta Holzberg.