Operationalising the International Research Cooperation on Soil Carbon

Project Information

ORCaSa

Grant agreement ID: 101059863

DOI

10.3030/101059863

Project closed

EC signature date 8 June 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 31 August 2025

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 3 092 966,25

EU contribution

€ 2 989 091,25

Coordinated by

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE POUR L'AGRICULTURE, L'ALIMENTATION ET L'ENVIRONNEMENT
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ORCaSa (Operationalising the International Research Cooperation on Soil Carbon)

Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

To reach the targets of the Paris Agreement commitments for land degradation neutrality, for biodiversity, and to support the EU Green Deal and the Soil Mission objectives, Europe needs to join its research and innovation forces on soil carbon with those around the globe in a coordinated manner. International coordination of research efforts is essential to scale up efforts for conserving and increasing soil carbon stocks and harness the co-benefits for climate change mitigation and adaptation, soil health and food security. In this context the EC supported a 1st Coordination and Support Action (CSA CIRCASA) led by INRAE which brought together over 100 key stakeholders and 500 scientists from around the world who formalised an interest for a Soil Carbon International Research Consortium built around an initial strategic research and innovation agenda (SRIA) focusing on agricultural soils. EC has therefore decided to take the lead and fund another CSA, the ORCaSa project, in order to make this IRC operational.

ORCaSa's main objective is thus to negotiate with international interested parties to put in place all the governance structures, a business model and the main services that will form the basis of the Soil Carbon International Research Consortium (IRC) so that by 2025 it is fully established as an international reference. To reach this overall goal, ORCaSa brings together 6 European partners and 5 regional nodes covering the 5 continents around an ambitious 3-year work plan working hand in hand with the international every step of the way.

ORCaSa’s partners with further mobilization of the international community of stakeholders will develop and expand the initial agricultural Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda to other land uses; launch and roll out the initial operational phases and governance issues of the Soil Carbon IRC; develop with international funding bodies an implementation plan and research collaboration activities; enable the preparation of a disruptive low cost international recognized MRV system and develop a one stop shop knowledge platform offering services to this community.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

ORCaSa launched the Soil Carbon International Research consortium on November 21st 2023. A first business model was proposed and will be developed with the collaboration of IRC interim steering committee. ORCaSa signed with EJP Soil a collaboration agreement and is in the process of signing one with 4/1000 (agreement in principle and collaborative actions in place) and the JRC (currently being validated by the JRC). INRAE and CIRAD lead the writing of a first draft of a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).

In 2022, 18 funders funded the 2nd EJP-SOIL external call (11 million €). The opening to new countries highlighted a potential to reshape collaborations in soil research. This first action (started before ORCaSa launch) strengthened international cooperation on soils and facilitated the involvement of funding agencies in the TAP (Thematic Annual Programming) : tool aiming to align national research funding programs. In addition, the funding agencies mobilized their experts to set up a Knowledge Hub to obtain feedback from researchers on this global topic and offer them new opportunities for collaboration.

An international survey of current MRV initiatives for assessing changes in organic carbon stocks and associated methodologies was carried out in order to propose a new integrated methodological framework for MRV of soil organic carbon stocks. On this basis, we submitted an article to Global Change Biology. We also developed and published an MRV prototype for cultivated land, the AgriCarbon-EO pre-operational processing chain. INRAE also took part in two co-creation workshops for the construction of an MRV for cropland with partners in the USA, and WP4 partners prepared two co-creation workshop organized in April 2024.

The work performed by the partners allowed to define the functional and technical specifications of the platform, as well as building partnership with external sources. This time was also used to organize and plan the development activities between partners. The platform development is currently underway. Two versions have already been completed: v0 and v1, from which we were able to gather user feedback and evolve the features. The following modules have been developed: geospatial data, scientific evidence, network, practices, datasets. 13 external sources have been chosen.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Soil Carbon International Research Consortium was officially launched in November 2023. The community of international partners is growing and the governance structure is being put in place. The International Soil Carbon Research Consortium coordinates soil carbon research, enabling it to progress more rapidly, develop synergies and avoid duplication of effort.

A Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) extends to all soil types, takes into account regional research needs at international level, and identifies knowledge requirements for developing research strategies in each of these areas. This will make it possible to develop synergies in research initiatives and highlight to funding agencies the need to finance research on these subjects. Negotiations with funding agencies are underway.

The development of a new multi-ecosystem MRV methodological framework provides stakeholders with a framework for demonstrating effective soil carbon storage. This is a need expressed by many players, such as governments wishing to certify their emission reduction trajectory within a country, or companies wanting to be able to certify the reduction of their GHG footprint, particularly with regard to their scope 3 in the agricultural sector.

The Impact4soil knowledge platform currently under development will enable the Soil Carbon IRC to continue to develop, and will highlight the network of research organizations and projects, verified and localized storage practices, the most relevant scientific reviews, datasets and interactive scientific maps from a range of verified sources.