International Research Consortium on (agricultural) soil carbon
Soil health is threatened both in Europe and globally by the effects of human activities and climate change. It is estimated that between one fourth and one third of global soils suffer from degradation. Soil degradation negatively impacts on food production, biodiversity or soil’s capacity to retain water and store carbon. Urgent action is needed to stabilise and increase soil carbon in soils, thereby also drawing down atmospheric CO2 and monitor its status in more reliable ways, at a range of scales from field to region and at a low cost. Yet, knowledge and methodological gaps exist in relation to measuring soil carbon stocks and changes in soil carbon as well as with regard to effective measures for increasing soil carbon. Furthermore, research and innovation (R&I) efforts are dispersed and results not widely known or taken up.
International research cooperation is needed to pool resources and scale up efforts for monitoring soil carbon stock changes, remote sensing and modelling. Activities should include
- building a formal research cooperation between EU and international partners on soil carbon. While initially focusing on carbon in agricultural soils, the partnership should progressively expand during the lifetime of the project to address also other land uses (e.g. forests, pastures, public areas for recreation including in urban settings);
- an analysis of results of on-going R&I and knowledge sharing through a single online knowledge platform with access to information and data from different existing repositories;
- building a roadmap for R&I priorities at international level based on identified knowledge gaps as well as identifying and developing joint flagship initiatives;
- establishing the methodological basis for a harmonised monitoring and verification of soil organic carbon balance.
For activities involving satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing, the selected project should use as much as possible Copernicus and/or Galileo / EGNOS (taking into account possible limitations on their use by international partners). Other data and services may be used additionally.
Activities should be implemented in synergy with major soil related European initiatives including the European Joint Programme EJP Soil and a planned mission in the area of Soil Health and Food.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.