Awakening Soil Curiosity to Catalyse Soil Literacy

Despite being fundamental to life on Earth, soil is under severe pressure due to population growth, changing consumption habits and climate-induced alterations to land cover and use. More than 60% of soil ecosystems in Europe face degradation or the threat of erosion, carbon loss, desertification, and contamination, costing the EU over €50 billion annually. Soil degradation, driven by suboptimal land management practices past and present, is exacerbated by climate change, posing significant challenges to soil quality and ecosystem services.

The CURIOSOIL Project seeks to counter this crisis by enhancing soil literacy through collaborative efforts in education. Recent science offers a range of novel technologies and approaches that contribute to our understanding of the complex interactions between soil properties and the provision of multiple ecosystem services. However, there is a lack of awareness at all societal levels about soil health and the consequences of poor soil and land management, attributed to a shortage of soil education efforts relative to the scale of societal needs.

About CURIOSOIL

The CURIOSOIL Project is funded under the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ focused on enhancing soil education. CURIOSOIL has the overarching objective of understanding how to trigger soil curiosity and create connections between people and soil. Led by Universidade de Aveiro, the project aims to bridge gaps in understanding soil health among students, teachers, citizens, policymakers, and practitioners as well as palliate soil illiteracy, an obstacle to achieving sustainable soil use.

CURIOSOIL seeks to fill in that gap through immersive soil experiences, fostering a more profound connection between individuals and the ground beneath their feet, contributing to having a more soil-literate society. The project will co-create of a set of educational products, course materials, and teacher’s training programmes and develop a “Soil Curiosity Kit” using multisensorial soil experiences to raise soil literacy and build a soil optimism narrative.

Facts