The Information-based Strategies for Land Remediation, in short ISLANDR, is a multidisciplinary project, which is foremost aimed at supporting the execution of the EU mission: A Soil Deal for Europe.

More specifically, the ISLANDR research activities are designed to provide tools and methods so as to support: (1) the delineation of polluted soils across Europe, (2) an evidence-based assessment of the risks posed by polluted soils, (3) the promotion of sustainable and risk-based land management practices, (4) the inclusion of a wider valuation approach in financial and investment cases, and (5) a closer integration of land contamination and spatial planning decision-making. Lessons learnt and experience gained throughout the project duration will be used to (6) deliver key policy-relevant findings related to the Soil Strategy, the proposed Soil Health Law, and other areas of policy where soils are crucial.

In order to road-test the project’s findings, seven test areas across Europe have been identified. To begin with, the ISLANDR Test Areas (ITAs) will provide a real-world context for the planned research activities. More concretely, the ITAs have been selected to cover different land use types, such as urban, peri-urban, rural, agro-forestry, mining, wetlands and coastal areas. Furthermore, the ITAs are characterized by both point and diffuse sources of pollution, as well as by different soil pollution types, such as organic, inorganic, as well as contaminants of emerging concern.

Furthermore, ISLANDR brings a dedicated focus to low input remediation, by including test areas impacted by the consequences of the green transition, such as former mining areas. This will ensure that soil remediation will be facilitated even when the cost of remediation is economically marginal or may even be negative. On the one hand, this necessitates a more thorough understanding of low input remediation approaches from a technological perspective, yet it also requires a wider value proposition for investment cases and financial planning.

Key actors, stakeholders and end-beneficiaries are at the epicentre of ISLANDR. Through roundtables in the respective ITAs, the foremost assignment of local actors will be to provide feedback and offer insights as to the robustness and effectiveness of the strategies, frameworks and decision-support tools, as well as on the wider valuation approaches and financing mechanisms to be developed over the course of the project’s lifetime. Thus, the Roundtables are foreseen to bring an iterative feedback loop to the research process, with a view to ensure the wider uptake of the project’s outcomes and achievements.

Last but not least, local communities in the respective ITAs will be invited to participate in a survey organized both during the early stages and towards the end of the project, as a means to document soil literacy among society thereby bringing insight as to whether the exposure of society to the project’s activities on the ground can bring about a strongly desired ‘awareness pull’ to the benefits to be reaped from healthy soils, thereby leveraging society at large to subscribe to the projects’ motto: ISLANDR for Soil Health!

ISLANDR was officially launched on the 1st of May 2023 with a foreseen project duration of 3 years. The project brings together 14 partners from 13 countries, including 10 EU Member States. The project receives €5.8 million in EU funding through the Horizon Europe programme. In addition, the partners based in UK and Switzerland are foreseen to contribute with €1.1 million in funding to the project.