SPIN-FERT: Innovations for soil, impact for people and policies The SPIN-FERT project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe program, focuses on improving soil health in horticultural crops while promoting peat-free substrates. Soil is a living, life-giving natural resource that has been identified as fragile and nonrenewable. However, it is threatened by overall land degradation, including erosion, declines in organic matter and biodiversity, salinisation, and desertification, particularly due to anthropogenic activities, including intensive agricultural practices. Healthy soil is key to providing healthy food and safeguarding human health, a concept developed under the One Health framework. In this context, the European Union has developed a strategy to reverse current trends in soil degradation, including the establishment of a ‘Mission Soil’ under the Horizon Europe program for research and innovation.
Eligio Malusà (2026) studied this question.