On 17 November 2026, from 5:00 to 6:00 PM, the European Rural Development Network invites you to Kraków for a special Mission Soil session at the Open Eyes Economy Summit: “Mission SOIL: The Economy of Greed vs. The Source of Survival”.
Together with researchers, practitioners, artists and international partners, we will talk about soil, the economy, and why the ground beneath our feet deserves a much bigger place in the way we think about our future.
About the Open Eyes Economy Summit
The Open Eyes Economy Summit (OEES) is one of Europe’s major socio-economic events. It brings together leaders from business, academia, government, culture and civil society around the idea of an economy based on values, social responsibility and sustainable development. The summit has been held in Kraków every year since 2016.
The 2026 edition takes place on 17–18 November at the ICE Kraków Congress Centre and online. Its theme is Business and Democracy: two pillars of the modern world whose strength, independence and mutual relations shape the future of societies and economies. This year’s motto, “connecting the dots”, highlights collaboration and the links between phenomena, processes and ideas.
The session and its speakers
The session will be moderated by Paweł Chmieliński (ERDN; Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development, Polish Academy of Sciences – IRWiR PAN; Member of the OEES Programme Council).
The speakers are:
- Francesca Bampa – UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe (UNESCO Office in Venice), Science Unit
- Michał Moś – Energene Seeds Ltd, Plant Melody
- Nikola Patzel – International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), Working Group “Cultural Patterns of Soil Understanding”
- Anka Wandzel – MOST Cooperative Urban Farm (Spółdzielcza Farma Most), winner of the SoilScape FSTP Open Call
- Katarzyna Gizińska – ERDN; Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences; conductor of the Polish Soil & Art Orchestra – Orkiestra Glebowa.
Art as part of the conversation
The session will open with “Sowers”, an artistic intervention by the Relict Soil collective (Sylwester Stabryła and Piotr Woroniec), also a winner of the SoilScape FSTP Open Call, together with the Polish Soil & Art Orchestra. Sometimes art can make us think about things that statistics and economic models alone cannot quite capture.
After the session: going underground
When the session is over, the conversation moves below the surface – quite literally. At 8:00 PM, on level -1 of HEVRE in Kraków’s Kazimierz district, we invite you to the concert “Pieśni Natury” (Songs of Nature), featuring Angela Gaber and Marcelina Sokół. The concert will be followed by an afterparty, because there is more to a good conversation about soil than sitting in a conference room.
Organisers and practical information
The session is held under the patronage of the European Rural Development Network (ERDN) and the Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IRWiR PAN), as part of the Horizon Europe projects SoilScape, LandShift, Nemesis and SoilTribes.
More about the summit and its full programme: kongres.oees.pl
See you in Kraków – first to talk soil, then to take the conversation underground!
