Approaching the project’s second anniversary, we were in Paris for a SPADES Co-Creation & Integration Workshop in early July 2026. It was a key milestone in the project’s collaborative journey, bringing together partners to review progress and integrate work across different groups and focus points.

SPADES supports 17 pilots across the urban-rural continuum as they work with local stakeholders to test soil-inclusive spatial planning tools and advance soil health through the planning practice. Over the past two years, the project has developed its diagnostic and co-creation phases, identifying: 

– soil health and planning challenges

– soil-inclusive planning & design concepts and instruments

– real-world best practices that advance soil health

– soil-related policies at EU, national, and local levels 

At iUE, our research work focused on studying spatial arrangements of settlements and their relationship to soil challenges; analysing spatial planning and design concepts that help advance soil health; and looking into pathways to integrate soil considerations into the spatial planning practice; as well as compiling best practice examples of projects and interventions that promote soil health. 

As the project now moves toward on-the-ground implementation and evaluation, the Paris workshop brought all work streams together, strengthening integration between them and sparking exchange and collaboration across teams.

Together, the interactive meeting helped establish a shared vision moving forward, with results that will directly inform the SPADES Manual and the SPADES Navigator, the project’s learning platform for soil health knowledge. We look forward to the work ahead, preparing project reports, informing policy and developing capacity building programmes to promote soil inclusivity in the planning practice.