Climate solutions: towards an international research consortium on agricultural soil carbon.

Abstract:

The H2020 CIRCASA project has 22 partners from 15 countries on five continents. It started in 2017 and aims to develop international synergies concerning research and knowledge exchange in the field of carbon sequestration in agricultural soils at European Union and global levels, with the active engagement of all relevant stakeholders. By bringing together the research community, international organizations, governments, CIRCASA took stock of the current understanding of soil carbon research in agriculture, identified stakeholder’s knowledge and research needs, and fostered the creation of new knowledge. On this basis, a 2020-2025 Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) was co-designed between more than 200 scientitsts and with stakeholders from 10 world regions, including more than 1,500 farmers. A draft of this agenda received feedbacks from CIRCASA partners, members of the 4p1000 Initiative Scientific and Technical Committee, the Intergovernmental Technical Panel of Soils (ITPS) of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP)and the Integrative Research group of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) as well as from relevant European Commission Services. It is grounded both on scientific evidence showing research and innovation needs and on the demands expressed by stakeholders. It addresses both soil carbon sequestration and soil carbon conservation, it concerns primarily soil organic carbon but also considers interactions with soil inorganic carbon (SIC). This preparatory work underlines the need to develop an International Research Consortium (IRC) on soil organic carbon in agriculture. The overarching goal of this IRC is to facilitate and align R&I activities. It will bring together public sector, non-for profit and private sector stakeholders that express interest in funding, developing and using research and innovation (Fig. 1). This IRC will coordinate R&I programs, provide capacity building and knowledge sharing, with a focus on four pillars: 1.Frontier’s Research: unlocking the potential of soil carbon; 2. An international soil organic carbon balance monitoring system (combining remote sensing, soil, climate and agricultural practices data); 3. Targeted innovation (fertilizers, seeds, machinery, etc.); 4. Enabling environment and knowledge co-creation.