Participants at the HuMUS final conference, 21 November 2025, Brussels
On Friday, 21 November 2025, 100 people gathered in Brussels at the European Committee of the Regions to celebrate the end of the three-year project Healthy Municipal Soils (HuMUS). The HuMUS final conference, organised by the project coordinator ANCI Toscana and Agroecology Europe, the partner leading its communication and dissemination efforts, marked a crucial point for the project, now coming to an end.
Under the title “Participatory governance for Soil Health quality management: The legacy of the HuMUS project”, the HuMUS consortium − hosted by the European Committee of the Regions − was delighted to welcome around 100 stakeholders, including 25 speakers and several representatives of the 34 HuMUS pilots, showcased through 11 posters that illustrated the rich diversity and impact of the project’s work across and beyond Europe.
The 11 posters showcasing the HuMUS pilot results.
Using the biological district multi-stakeholder approach, HuMUS selects stakeholders to develop Territorial Management Agreements at the local or regional levels. In the selected territories, HuMUS consortium partners identified 14 exemplary cases that represent good practices of participatory soil health management. Additionally, the Call for proposals identified and supported 20 pilot projects, involving a total number of at least 300 Quadruple Helix stakeholders.
Participation until the final stage
The HuMUS Final Conference brought together policymakers, soil stewards, municipalities, regional authorities, researchers, farmers, urban planners, and civil society to share knowledge and outcomes from the three-year Horizon Europe project HuMUS.
In the picture, the HuMUS partners from the consortium and the Open Call pilots.
The day offered a dynamic mix of formats, fostering dialogue and knowledge exchange, including keynote speeches from EU officials and soil policy experts, panel discussions featuring pilot sites and regional success stories, interactive Q&A sessions and the poster exhibition showcasing project activities and outcomes. Among the interventions, the Soilscape project was presented by UNESCO and the SOLO Sоils for Europe project by PAN Europe.
Welcome remarks by Luca Menesini, Provincial Councillor, Lucca Province Council, European Committee of the Regions
A real highlight of the day was the Soil Sommelier experience, offered by Yasmine Cathell, representing the project Medi-Terra (Cilento, Italy), a pilot from the project’s Open Call. Participants had the opportunity to engage in the assessment of soil health through olfactory perception, learning how to recognise indicators of soil health or lack thereof) among different soil samples.
The HuMUS effect: a long-lasting impact on soil health
As highlighted several times throughout the conference, HuMUS has kick-started a transformation in local soil governance, demonstrating how participatory, inclusive and replicable approaches can pave the way toward healthier soils and stronger communities. Over the last three years (2023-2025), HuMUS has involved 18 partners from 8 European countries, with 14 internal pilots and 20 external pilots, selected via a Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP) call, bringing the final number of Member States and Associated Countries involved to 16.
The conference demonstrated how, in supporting the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”, HuMUS established constructive, multi-actor dialogues to co-identify soil problems and co-develop solutions at the municipal or regional level, adopting a multi-actor participatory approach. In three years, the HuMUS consortium engaged more than 50,000 stakeholders through awareness-raising, capacity building, and participatory activities, organising more than 220 events.
The main innovation brought about in the HuMUS pilots has been the so-called Territorial Management Agreement (TMA), a formal, co-created pact between various regional and local stakeholders. Partners collected more than 300 signatures for the Territorial Management Agreements. This represents a useful written tool to empower local entities to engage with local stakeholders, identify problems, and co-create short, medium and long-term solutions.
Pictured here: Territorial Management Agreement signing in the Calenzano and Val Varaita pilots, Italy.
TMAs provide public authorities and stakeholders involved in the participatory process with an important document that gathers objectives and solutions to be implemented. This represents a solid starting point for developing local initiatives and projects to be implemented or integrated into local and regional strategies, plans and programmes.
Other significant results presented at the conference include a Training Programme for Soil Stewards, trained civil servants or community members who actively promote and facilitate local soil health dialogues and initiatives. The programme has been attended by than 220 participants from 26 countries in the 5 continents so far.
Looking at the future: the HuMUS legacy
Overall, the HuMUS methodology is a replicable tool for actor engagement and participatory governance, designed to foster dialogue and collaborative action on soil health. The objective is now to facilitate the replication and transfer of the HuMUS good practice in additional local territories, to ensure that the HuMUS legacy continues to inspire and facilitate local action for collaborative soil health management.
HuMUS partners and participants during networking sessions at the conference
As shared in the closing remarks by Sandra Heinzelmann, Project Advisor at the European Research Executive Agency (REA): “HuMUS worked hard, with very dedicated members. The collaboration with other Mission Soil projects was also notable and very positive. HuMUS implemented what was promised – and even went beyond that. Be proud of that.”
This is only the beginning. The work continues and the commitment stays high even after the end of the project, to promote further diffusion of participatory soil governance at the local and regional levels in Europe.
“We are making the HuMUS family become a generation – and hopefully many generations.”
Astrid Hannes, Head of Projects at ERRIN
Keep an eye on the HUMUS website for the last updates on project results, Territorial Management Agreements, and success stories emerging from the pilots, and sign up here to receive the last HuMUS newsletter.
Together, we can keep cultivating the future of participatory healthy soil governance.
