BENCHMARKS project marks 2024 key achievements and sets direction for 2025
The BENCHMARKS project* continues to advance soil health research as it enters its third year. 2024 has been a year of major accomplishments, positioning the project for a dynamic and impactful 2025.
Key Achievements of 2024
Multistakeholder Workshops
In 2024, the project concluded 21 multistakeholder workshops across case study sites, engaging 647 participants from 11 countries. The data gathered was processed and translated into local languages, resulting in 21 reports and an interactive tool for comparing results. These offer invaluable insights on stakeholder views across land uses, and will contribute to the development of three to four academic papers on stakeholder engagement and needs for soil health assessment.
Case Studies and Sampling Campaign
The number of case studies grew from 24 to 29, enabling an extensive field sampling campaign across 2,218 locations in agricultural and forestry sites. This was hugely successful, thanks to the hardwork of the case study teams and supporting labs. Despite challenges, the campaign yielded over 28,800 lab measurements, with drone teams assessing the applicability of remote sensing at >6 sites.
Cognitive Models
The project team worked together to defined four foundational soil function models (Nutrient Cyling, Climate Regulation and C Management, Habitat for Biodiversity and Water Regulation and Purification), detailing which processes, parameters and key indicators are needed to quantify these functions. This milestone aligns the project’s objectives with the complex dynamics of soil health and stakeholder needs.
Database Infrastructure
A robust data collection and storage infrastructure was developed, ensuring that project data is accessible and thoroughly documented.
Engagement with MRV Actors
The project engaged local, national, and European Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) actors, laying the foundation for strong partnerships that will further enhance the relevance and applicability of project outcomes.
Soil Health Dashboard
The first steps were taken in conceptualising the BENCHMARKS Soil Health Dashboard, focused on assessing soil functions for soil health. This interactive dashboard will aid in the selection of soil health indicators tailored to stakeholder-specific needs, scales, and land uses.
Looking Ahead to 2025
The year ahead will focus on:
- The Long-Term Agricultural and Forestry Experimental case study sites will be re-sampled in 2025, which are distributed across European climatic zones. 120 urban sites will be sampled across 6 European cities, starting in April 2025.
- The four cognitive models will be refined for the three land uses and three spatial extents.
- Work on MRV assessment will commence with a number of value chains, national authorities and a European Policy teams.
BENCHMARKS: A Collaborative Force for Soil Health
With its ongoing efforts and a strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement and collaboration with other European projects within the EU’s Soil Mission, BENCHMARKS stands out as a highly collaborative initiative. The project will continue to work with a number of European projects on monitoring soil health and focus interactions this year with Living Lab projects on defining the impact of land management practices on soil health, contributing to the goal of achieving healthy soils by 2030.
Stay Updated
Follow BENCHMARKS as it embarks on another impactful year in 2025.
For media inquiries, contact:
benchmarks@soilhealthbenchmarks.eu
BENCHMARKS is a 5-year transdisciplinary research project focused on monitoring soil health across Europe. It aims to define and harmonise soil health monitoring approaches across Europe for a range of land-uses. It brings together 29 partner organisations from across Europe, The European Commission, The Joint Research Council and representatives of the business and land management sectors, at Wageningen University.



