Healthy soils are essential for improving water absorption, storage, and infiltration, as well as for enabling the transformation of nutrients and other substances. These processes play a key role in protecting groundwater reserves.

Soils that retain water more effectively and allow for deep infiltration are key to mitigating the effects of extreme weather events such as floods and droughts, and are crucial to strengthening the territories.

This new grant responds to needs identified by organisations and experts in the agricultural sector, encouraging broader adoption of sustainable soil management practices that have a direct impact on water availability and conservation.

This initiative is aimed at peer-to-peer demonstration projects that bring farmers into the field to observe best practices and understand their effects.

It builds on previous initiatives focused on improving irrigation efficiency, which helped create a strong network of organisations working towards more sustainable water use in agriculture through technological modernisation.

Objective

This grant is aimed at organisations that represent or work with various segments of the agricultural sector – including producer organisations, competence centres and others.

Its goal is to expand hands-on learning opportunities by drawing on the knowledge of those already applying good practices. These practitioners can help clarify available options, associated risks and benefits, and the medium- to long-term impacts of transitioning to more sustainable systems.

Funded projects must demonstrate a direct and measurable contribution to the following objectives:

• Empowering farmers in Portugal to adopt agricultural practices that improve soil health and monitoring, thereby enhancing water absorption, storage, and filtration, along with other ecological benefits;

• Demonstrating the benefits of sustainable practices, adapted to specific crops and farming contexts, through peer learning and exposure to innovative approaches;

• Communicating the value of integrated water and soil management across the sector.

Eligibility criteria

Partnerships are eligible if they involve organisations working in the agricultural sector and meet the following criteria:

• Demonstrated technical knowledge of integrated resource management (soil and water) in the project’s target region, including best practices and appropriate use of technology;

• Capacity to organise, deliver or support on-site demonstration activities on farms of various sizes, reflecting the diversity of agricultural realities;

• Ability to structure the project around one or more crops or regions, with specific characteristics and needs that inform the design of the demonstration work;

• Commitment to fostering active farmer participation, both in the demonstration activities and in sharing practices, experiences, concerns and results;

• Capacity to mobilise a wider group of stakeholders, including experienced farmers as mentors, through partner organisations, to increase the project’s reach and impact;

• Ability to support farmers in selecting and implementing more efficient irrigation systems, technologies and equipment;

• Experience in developing projects grounded in solid methodologies, such as those used in the European FarmDemo and Nefertiti initiatives;

• Ability to communicate and disseminate project outcomes effectively, particularly to the wider agricultural community.

Grant conditions

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation will support up to four projects in 2025. Each selected project will receive between €70,000 and €100,000 in funding.

How to Apply

• Only online applications will be accepted;
• Register on MyGulbenkian;
• Before submitting the application form, check all eligibility criteria. We recommend reading the Call Conditions (available in the Documents section);
• The application can only be submitted once all required fields in the form are completed and all documents required by the Call Conditions have been uploaded;
• Finally, click the “Submit Application” button. To avoid difficulties in submitting your application, do not wait until the last days of the deadline.