Assessing knowledge and implementation gaps in soil health: an analysis from stakeholders

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Despite the European Union establishing an ambitious legislative framework—including the recent Soil Monitoring Law—and making significant scientific progress in understanding soil health, 60%–70% of EU soils remain unhealthy. This persistence of degradation highlights a potential disconnect between policy ambition and reality. This study–conducted within the EU “Benchmarks” project - investigates whether specific knowledge gaps are hindering the implementation of sustainable soil management (SSM) and the delivery of ecosystem services. We conducted a quantitative stakeholder perception analysis using a structured questionnaire based on the 13 action areas of the EU Soil Strategy for 2030. Data were collected from 79 experts across various sectors (Research, Government, NGOs, Education) using a purposive sampling strategy to identify soil knowledge gaps and prioritize intervention points based on the perceived urgency of knowledge and implementation failures. The analysis reveals a “Governance-Science Gap”. While stakeholders report high confidence in technical monitoring tools (e.g., LUCAS, Copernicus), they identify critical failures in integrating ecosystem services into political decision-making, defining actionable SSM practices and securing adequate funding. Disaggregated data show distinct perceptual disconnects; NGOs prioritize practical actions and funding, whereas researchers focus on theoretical gaps in climate and biodiversity. Comparing these findings with other EU initiatives (Soil Mission Support (SMS) and SOLO projects), we conclude that the primary barrier to soil health is not a lack of fundamental data, but a “Technical-Institutional Mismatch”. Future Research and Innovation (R&I) must therefore shift focus from data generation (Knowledge Development Gaps) to governance (e.g. research in developing approaches and tools to support informed decision), economic incentives, and educational frameworks (Knowledge Gaps) to translate science into effective stewardship. These exploratory findings warrant confirmation through larger-scale surveys but offer an evidence-based, stakeholder-driven diagnosis of priority areas for EU soil policy implementation.