ORCaSa incubated the ecosystem – Soil Carbon Futures will operate it

ORCaSa reached its conclusion at the end of August 2025, closing a chapter that mattered for one simple reason: it did not just produce outputs, it incubated an ecosystem. It brought together a global mix of researchers, funders, policymakers and practitioners, and it tested the formats and tools needed to keep international cooperation on soil carbon both credible and useful.

This is where Soil Carbon Futures comes in. Building on what ORCaSa initiated under the Soil Carbon International Research Consortium, Soil Carbon Futures is the operator: maintaining momentum, professionalising services, and making it easier for organisations to collaborate, align research priorities and turn soil carbon knowledge into action.

If you only click one link in this article, make it this one: Soil Carbon Futures.

From community engagement to a durable network: Carbon Talks keeps the dialogue alive

The Carbon Talks: Research – Policy – Business video series helped translate complexity into shared language, kept expertise visible, and created a regular meeting point for the community. The full Carbon Talks collection is currently hosted via Soil Carbon Futures’s resource library: Carbon Talks.

Three services that make soil carbon work scalable

ORCaSa incubated tools, methods and relationships. Soil Carbon Futures now operationalises that legacy through three service lines – clear entry points for people who want to use, contribute to, or co-develop the work.

Impact4Soil is the knowledge service designed to reduce friction. The soil carbon space is overloaded with publications, datasets, tools and ‘best practice’ claims; Impact4Soil curates and structures that information to support faster, evidence-based decisions and collaborations. If you have not explored it yet, start here: Impact4Soil.

Harmonising MRV (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification) is where credibility becomes actionable. Without robust MRV, soil carbon cannot be trusted at scale – whether the use case is public policy, certification schemes, corporate insetting, or voluntary markets. Soil Carbon Futures is structuring MRV into a service that aims to build adaptable tools, evaluate methodologies, and support an international, science-based framework: Harmonising MRV.

Driving collaboration through SRIA and research alignment is what prevents the field from fragmenting into disconnected pilots. The Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda (SRIA) provides a shared direction, while the network makes it easier to turn priorities into partnerships and funding-ready consortia: Global collaboration and SRIA.

If you want to formalise your involvement, the most direct route is membership: Members & joining.

From platforms to policy: Brussels as a proof point

The Policy Workshop on International Carbon Certification Schemes in Brussels (26 September 2024) is a concrete example of ORCaSa’s incubator role feeding into Soil Carbon Futures’ operational trajectory. You can still access the workshop page on Soil Carbon Futures here: Policy workshop.

For a narrative recap (including participation figures), ORCaSa published a detailed lookback: A look back at the policy workshop in Brussels. The workshop brought together around 65 participants in person and 100 online, and it fed into a policy brief.

In parallel, ORCaSa tested what ‘reach at scale’ can look like for soil carbon. Two LinkedIn campaigns promoting Impact4Soil generated over 1.9 million impressions, demonstrating that – when the message is sharp and the offer is clear – soil carbon can travel well beyond its usual specialist circles.

Rio was a high point – and it should become a series

The community is not built only online; it is reinforced through moments of shared focus. The first edition of the Latin American and Caribbean Soil Carbon Research Symposium in Rio de Janeiro (25–28 June 2025) was one of those moments.

Closing a project is not closing the work

ORCaSa incubated the network, the formats and the proof points. Soil Carbon Futures now operates the legacy through services – Impact4Soil, harmonised MRV, and SRIA-driven collaboration – and through an open invitation to join and shape what comes next: Become a member.

The project ended. The soil carbon work didn’t.