ORCaSa The Soil Carbon IRC

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The Soil Carbon International Research Consortium (IRC) was officially launched in November 2023.

The Soil Carbon IRC takes shape in 2024, and you can already show your interest in joining it, and open the door to a stronger commitment in the very near future.

Why an IRC on soil carbon?

The idea to create a Soil Carbon IRC emerged during the CIRCASA project (2017-2021) together with more than 100 stakeholders and 500 scientists from around the world. It was then reinforced by the launch of the ORCaSa project in September 2022.

Taking things a step further, the Soil Carbon IRC expands its scope to cover all soils (including forests, pastures, wetlands, and urban areas…). Aided by Impact4Soil, an online platform for collecting and sharing knowledge on soil carbon, the IRC, and its partners and regional nodes aim to provide better access to research, methods and practices related to soil carbon.

Forests

Cities

Wetlands

Agricultural land

How and why to get involved?

By joining the Soil Carbon IRC, you will:

Be part of an international community truly committed to raise awareness and develop scientific knowledge of soil carbon issues, especially on MRV (Measurement, Reporting and Verification) methodologies, and the adoption of a harmonised framework.
Be able to create and develop public-private synergies and multidisciplinary cooperation activities on a larger scale.
Contribute to an aligned Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) that will consider all types of land use to ensure soil health and innovation in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Be active in implementing an annual thematic programming on soil carbon topics, trends, and issues.
Take part and access the very latest research outputs through Impact4Soil, a knowledge platform: review of practices, mapping of initiatives and projects, scientific evidence through meta-analysis and reviews, etc.

What does that mean?

Depending on your expertise and type of involvement (funding, member, regional node…), you will be part of one of the three colleges: research, funders, or users. The IRC’s international dimension will be guaranteed through a regional node’s college. In that way, open discussions will be possible to freely share different opinions, views, policies and try to harmonise them. Then, each college will have elected representatives who will sit on a steering committee – the decision-making body of the IRC – to work on the strategy and resources to be mobilised and allocated. A general assembly will be organised annually to gather everyone.

This is where you come in if you are one of the following:

University and research organisation
National and international initiative or programme
Living lab
National and international R&D agency including space agency
Development agency, foundation, or bank
Private company or start-up working with environmental and sustainability topics
Policymaker on agricultural, food, climate and environmental issues
Affiliated with the farming sector (farmer, landowner, cooperative, farm advisor, forester…)
Environmental agency, conservation organisation, NGO focusing on climate and environmental topics

To join the Soil Carbon IRC, you must first send us a signed letter of interest. To do so, download the template for this letter of interest from the button below. Once you have downloaded and completed the document on your computer, you can send it to us by clicking on the “send us your form” button at the end of the template.