LifeWatch ERIC joined partners from across Europe at Aston University in Birmingham, United Kingdom, from 16 to 18 September 2026 for the kick-off meeting of REGENSOILL (Regenerating Brownfield Soils through Transdisciplinary Living Labs and Nature-Based Solutions). The 54-month Horizon Europe project contributes to the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” and aims to restore soil quality on industrial and urban brownfield sites through nature-based solutions, digital decision-support tools and regional consultation processes.
Around 60 experts from 25 beneficiaries and one associated partner in 12 countries took part, welcomed by Project Coordinator Daniel J. Nowakowski. Over three days, the teams presented their Work Package plans and received guidance from Project Officer Benoit Pereira and Policy Officer Jelena Vidović of DG AGRI. The consortium also visited two potential sites for the Birmingham Living Lab, where participants discussed the challenges of post-industrial soils and ways to involve local communities.
REGENSOILL is built around five Living Labs: Birmingham (United Kingdom), Budapest (Hungary), Lille Metropole (France), Upper Silesia (Poland) and a cross-border Baltic cluster covering Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They will bring together scientists, local authorities, businesses, landowners and communities to co-create, test and demonstrate a toolkit of scientifically validated bioremediation solutions. Beyond restoring degraded soils, the project aims to reduce exposure to historical pollution, boost urban biodiversity, improve stormwater management, combat heat islands and accelerate the reuse of brownfield sites without encroaching on new natural areas.
LifeWatch ERIC’s role
In REGENSOILL, LifeWatch ERIC leads two tasks in Work Package 6: the development of predictive models and a simulation engine, and the design and development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for the remediation and green redevelopment of brownfields. Built on digital twins of the sites, the system will simulate contaminant behaviour, soil health recovery and biodiversity under different nature-based solutions, such as phytoremediation or biochar and compost amendments.
AI methods will generate high-quality synthetic data to address data sparsity, stress-test workflows and validate models, making the DSS more reliable and scalable across sites and environmental conditions. The models will then be calibrated with field data from the Living Labs, and the results presented through interactive maps and scenario comparisons for planners, landowners and citizens. LifeWatch ERIC will also curate the soil biodiversity data collected across the Living Labs, making it openly accessible, interoperable and reusable.
Find out more at: regensoill.eu