This year, SoilWise strengthened its repository infrastructure, delivered targeted demonstrations, contributed to European soil policy discussions, and laid the groundwork for broader impact in 2026.
Catalogue Development and Milestones
A major highlight of 2025 was the launch of the first prototype of the SoilWise Data and Knowledge Catalogue in February. The catalogue integrates soil data and knowledge across Europe, following FAIR principles to ensure that information is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. It serves as a central platform for researchers, policymakers, land managers, business and farming professionals, and other stakeholders, supporting evidence-based decision-making and fostering collaboration across the European soil community.
During its first 24 months, SoilWise delivered two working catalogue prototypes, enabling users to access a growing number of records, including datasets, scientific publications, policy reports, and other structured and unstructured knowledge assets. The catalogue runs on a scalable infrastructure and already harvests metadata from trusted European and international sources such as CORDIS, OpenAIRE, Zenodo, ESDAC, BonaRes, PREPSOIL, the FAO Soils Portal, the EEA Datahub, and ISRIC.
Throughout 2025, the catalogue underwent significant design and usability enhancements, completed by August. These improvements strengthened functionality, navigation, and accessibility across both data and knowledge components. Dedicated tools were developed to assess and enrich metadata quality, improving traceability, completeness, and compliance with standards. By the end of the year, the catalogue was managing and curating approximately 30,000 metadata assets.
Innovative features further distinguish the SoilWise approach. A Soil Health Knowledge Graph enables semantic linking between soil-related concepts, improving discovery and reuse of information. In parallel, a standalone chatbot prototype, the Soil Companion, was introduced to provide generative AI–driven conversational access to catalogue content. These components are supported by automated workflows that ensure metadata remains current, connected, and reusable over time.
SoilWise Demo Events
Engaging stakeholders remained a central focus of SoilWise in 2025. In April, the project conducted a series of online and interactive demonstration events for different user groups. Sessions on 14 and 17 April targeted land managers, demonstrating practical applications for sustainable land use and soil monitoring. On 28 April, business and farming professionals explored real-world applications of FAIR soil data for operational and strategic decision-making. A dedicated research community session on 29 April provided hands-on experience with the catalogue and discussions on integration with broader European soil knowledge networks.
In addition, SoilWise held a special demonstration for policy makers and living lab actors on 25 September 2025, highlighting how the repository supports evidence-based decision-making and policy development. This session was recorded and is available on the SoilWise YouTube channel, while updates and highlights have been shared via LinkedIn posts, ensuring wider access for stakeholders who could not attend live.
These activities reflect SoilWise’s strong commitment to user-driven development. Multiple user stories have shaped catalogue functionalities, and stakeholders are actively testing and validating prototypes, ensuring that the platform responds to real needs and practical use cases.
Participation in European and International Forums
Throughout 2025, SoilWise actively shared its work at major European and international forums. In September, the project presented its FAIR data infrastructure at EUROSOIL 2025 in Seville, Spain, demonstrating the repository’s role in supporting both research and policy alignment. In November, SoilWise project participated in European Mission Soil Week in Aarhus, Denmark, engaging with policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, and contributing to discussions on soil data monitoring and FAIR principles.
The project also strengthened collaboration with other Mission Soil initiatives through the Cluster on Data and Knowledge Management, which SoilWise co-leads together with the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Within this cluster, partners shared approaches to metadata standards, technical workflows, and alignment with the European Soil Observatory. Further knowledge exchange took place at events such as INSII and the EJP SOIL Annual Science Days, strengthening SoilWise’s integration within the broader European soil research community.
Data Management and Policy Alignment
2025 also brought important policy developments. The EU Soil Monitoring Law, adopted and entered into force in December, requires systematic monitoring and assessment of soil health across Member States. SoilWise’s catalogue and knowledge infrastructure are positioned to support this initiative, enabling better findability of soil knowledge and data, supporting harmonised soil data, reporting, and evidence-based policymaking. Integration with the European Soil Observatory further strengthens the project’s contribution to EU-wide soil monitoring and research.
Close collaboration with the JRC has been central to this effort. SoilWise is working towards integrating the catalogue into the European Soil Observatory (EUSO) and migrating the infrastructure to JRC before the project’s end. These steps ensure long-term sustainability and alignment with EU policy needs. In parallel, SoilWise produced comprehensive guidelines on FAIR data and knowledge handling, both within the Mission Soil framework and beyond, promoting best practices for data management, sharing, and reuse across the soil science community.
Where We Are Now and What Comes Next
As of the end of 2025, SoilWise is concluding the second of its three development phases. Key priorities during this phase include enhanced harvesting of datasets and knowledge assets from more than two dozen open repositories, improved metadata management, refinement of the user interface and search functionality, further development of the chatbot prototype, and strengthened communication and feedback channels.
Following this development phase, the project will transition into its second Integration and Validation phase. By March 2026, a new prototype of the SoilWise catalogue will be ready for demonstration to external stakeholder groups. Feedback gathered during these demonstrations will inform the final iteration of the project, allowing SoilWise to further scale up functionality, usability, and impact.
Looking Ahead to 2026
In 2026, SoilWise will focus on improving the catalogue with expanded functionality and usability, continuing stakeholder engagement through community and capacity building webinars, training and demo sessions. Support to EU soil policy frameworks, including the Soil Monitoring Law and European Soil Observatory, will remain a priority. The project will also deepen collaboration across Mission Soil projects, support the digitisation and standardisation of soil vocabularies and knowledge workflows to maximise collective impact across Europe’s soil research community.
Conclusion
2025 has demonstrated the power of collaboration, innovation, and evidence-based action. By combining cutting-edge data infrastructure with active stakeholder engagement and alignment with EU policy, SoilWise continues to advance the European soil agenda, paving the way for healthier soils and sustainable land management across the continent.