Soil is a fundamental resource of paramount importance for the maintenance of life on Earth. However, this resource has been greatly weakened for some time now due to climate change and human exploitation. The present work aims to review the soil research that has been done at ENEA since 1960 to now. The history of soil research in ENEA starts with the establishment in 1960 of the so-called “gamma radiation field” of the “Comitato Nazionale per l’Energia Nucleare” and the Laboratory for Applications in Agriculture. The originally energy and agricultural vocation of the ENEA permitted to create a multidisciplinary team reaching remarkable results on the plant breeding and characterization and management of the agricultural land. The main projects and studies ranging from the evaluation of land degradation risk assessment and soil erosion desertification to the management of agricultural soil and the soil microbiome dynamics. The development and adoption of sustainable solutions, among all those based on microbiome, will permit to save/restore soil health and functions and mitigate the effects of climate change. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.