“Sponging” Europe through EU Mission Adaptation

Several policy initiatives by the European Commission, such as the European Water Resilience Strategy (EC, 2025a), recognize the urgent need to dramatically scale up investments and the deployment of natural sponges and other nature-based solutions to restore the natural functions of landscapes, replenish groundwater reserves, and protect biodiversity. Although there are increasing numbers of natural sponge pilot projects throughout Europe, the lack of sufficient technical assistance, tools, incentives, and financing has hindered scaling up to larger landscapes. More "sponge champions" are needed, including government authorities, private landowners in the agricultural sector, private businesses, and financial institutions. To better coordinate, expand, and provide a coherent framework for new and existing initiatives to enhance land water retention, the EC will develop a "Sponge Facility," which is retrieving strong support from civil society and NGOs (Living Rivers Europe, 2023). In addition, the Vision for Agriculture and Food (EC, 2025ba) intends to incentivize and support farming practices that recover, maintain, or improve soil health and retain water in soil. All these initiatives must be informed by scientific knowledge and empirical evidence, and the projects funded by the EU's Mission for Adaptation to Climate Change are addressing this need. Mission projects conduct and apply research to aid European regions and communities in better understanding, preparing for, and managing climate risks and opportunities. Some of the previous Mission calls[1] focused on collecting and generating knowledge and demonstrating solutions to effectively enhance the natural water retention functions of landscapes as a crucial element of water management.

Consequently, the family of Sponge projects funded by Mission Adaptation exemplifies sustained collaborative efforts to research, test, and demonstrate solutions across regions and communities through case studies, with a particular emphasis on nature-based solutions. As Mission projects, they aim to accelerate understanding of success factors involved in the adoption of these solutions by all stakeholders as part of systemic transformations toward climate resilience. Specifically, the Spongescapes[2] project aims to expand scientific knowledge to improve the sponge function of soil, groundwater, and surface water systems. The Spongeboost[3] project combines best practices with innovative approaches, testing them in various regions to incorporate them into a roadmap for implementing transformative measures to enhance resilience to extreme events. Finally, the SpongeWorks[4] project evaluates the effectiveness of large-scale implementation to co-create long-term sponge strategies, action plans, and roadmaps at the landscape scale. The progress and challenges faced by the Sponge project family and their contribution to regional water and climate resilience will be highlighted.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01-05; https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-OCEAN-SOIL-01-01

[2] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101112738

[3] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101112906

[4] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101156116

References

European Commission, 2025a. European Water Resilience Strategy. COM(2025) 280 final

European Commission, 2025b. A Vision for Agriculture and Food. COM(2025) 75 final

Living Rivers Europe, 2023. Adapting to the climate and water crises. Joint position paper for a water resilient Europe. https://europe.wetlands.org/freshwater-crisis-ngo-coalition-calls-for-new-eu-climate-and-water-resilience-law/