GROUNDED TRUTHS: Turning Soil Evidence into Democratic Action

Ruralities Living Lab at Sustainagro.net will be submitting GROUNDED TRUTH to the Pillar III: Promoting public engagement in R&I and scientific literacy call from HORIZON-WIDERA-2027-05-ERA-04.

Across Europe, young people are increasingly affected by decisions concerning climate change, biodiversity, food security, water resilience and land use. Yet many—particularly those living in rural areas or facing social and educational barriers—have few meaningful opportunities to participate in the scientific inquiry or policymaking that informs those decisions. GROUNDED TRUTHS will address this gap through a transnational program of SOILATHONS and SOILTALKS.

A SOILATHON is an intensive, inclusive process through which young people work with researchers, communities and decision-makers to investigate a locally important soil-related challenge. Participants will:

1. identify a soil–society challenge affecting their community;

2. formulate research questions and collect local evidence;

3. interpret their findings with scientists and community knowledge-holders;

4. consider uncertainty, competing interests and possible solutions;

5. deliberate with other young people and local stakeholders;

6. develop evidence-based proposals; and

7. present their findings directly to policymakers.

Soil becomes the entry point for understanding interconnected questions around challenges involving climate adaptation, biodiversity, water, agriculture, food systems, land use, public health and environmental justice. However, GROUNDED TRUTHS is not simply a soil-monitoring project. Its ambition is to develop and test a transferable European methodology through which citizens of all ages learn to use scientific evidence to participate meaningfully in democratic decision-making.

SOIL TALKS complement the SOILATHONS by providing facilitated spaces in which community members (including schools, researchers, Civil Society, and policymakers) jointly interpret evidence produced by the soilathons, discuss its implications and translate it into decision-relevant recommendations. By involving decision-makers throughout the process and inviting them to respond to the findings, SOIL TALKS help move locally generated evidence beyond awareness-raising and into policy dialogue and public action.

Thus, soil becomes the entry point for understanding interconnected challenges involving climate adaptation, biodiversity, water, agriculture, food systems, land use, public health and environmental justice. However, GROUNDED TRUTHS is not simply a soil-monitoring project. Its ambition is to develop and test a transferable European methodology through which young people—and, through intergenerational dialogue, citizens of all ages—learn to generate, interpret and use scientific evidence to participate meaningfully in democratic decision-making.

From evidence to policy action

Producing good evidence is not, by itself, sufficient to influence policy. GROUNDED TRUTHS will test a more demanding proposition: decision-makers are more likely to act when they:

• receive credible evidence generated through authentic community implementation;

• receive that evidence in decision-relevant formats;

• participate throughout the process rather than appearing only at final dissemination events; and

• see that proposed solutions can work within real institutional, financial, regulatory and political constraints.

Thus, policymakers will be involved from the beginning—helping to define locally relevant questions, reviewing emerging evidence and responding formally to participants' proposals. The intended pathway is clear:

Local soil challenge → Citizen sensing/Scientific Inquiry → Evidence and interpretation → Community deliberation → Policy and innovation proposals → Documented decision-maker response

Come, partner with us in the GROUNDED TRUTHS Horizon project, submission deadline 7 March. We invite expressions of interest from organizations able to contribute complementary expertise and reach diverse communities in the Widening regions of Europe. We are particularly interested in bringing into the applicant consortium:

• universities, research institutes and soil-science organizations;

• youth organizations and networks serving underserved communities;

• schools, VET providers and non-formal education networks;

• citizen-science and public-engagement specialists;

• science centers, museums and science-communication organizations;

• municipalities, regional authorities and environmental agencies;

• civil-society, farming and rural community networks;

• inclusion, accessibility and democratic-participation experts;

• organizations specializing in evaluation, behavioral change or evidence-to-policy processes; and

• European networks capable of supporting replication and policy uptake.

Partners should be able to mobilize young people, researchers, communities or policymakers—not simply provide general dissemination support to create locally-grounded SOILATHONS and support SOIL TALKS in diverse rural, coastal, peri-urban and urban settings. Ruralities Living Lab provides an inclusive and adaptable European SOILATHON methodology, facilitator training, and implementation resources that include accessible scientific-inquiry and democratic-deliberation tools. The project will sponsor a community of practice connecting youth, science, society and policy; contributions to open science repositories with comparative evidence concerning participation across different countries and contexts, decision-ready policy recommendations; and a replication pathway for schools, municipalities, youth organisations and citizen-science networks.

A Shared Mission..... We welcome prospective partners that share our belief that young people should not merely learn about science or be consulted after decisions have been framed. They should be supported to investigate real challenges, interpret evidence, deliberate over alternatives and participate in shaping the decisions affecting their territories. To express interest, please send a Partner Information Form or describing:

• your relevant expertise;

• the young people, territories or stakeholder networks you can mobilise;

• your proposed role in GROUND TRUTHS; and

• your relevant European project experience.

📩 info@sustainagro.net
🌐 www.sustainagro.net

Let us turn young people’s knowledge of the ground beneath their feet into evidence, agency and democratic action.

#GROUNDTRUTH #SOILATHONS #CitizenScience #CitizenSensing #YouthEngagement #ScienceAndDemocracy #SoilLiteracy #EnvironmentalEducation #ScienceCommunication #RuralInnovation #EuropeanProjects #HorizonEurope

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Sustainability in Rural Enterprises and Innovation

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