WP 1 - Strengthening research

WP 1 - Strengthening the research community and structuring knowledge (Objectives 1 and 2)

The international research community will be strengthened by: i) stocktaking of current and forthcoming international, regional and national research projects and programs on agricultural SOC sequestration, ii) better connecting these projects, e.g. through the OCP and iii) identifying through science meetings and desk studies knowledge gaps, trans-disciplinary research frontiers, novel technologies and knowledge synthesis needs and drafting the science base of a Strategic Research Agenda on agricultural SOC sequestration.

Current knowledge on agricultural soil carbon will be better structured by: i) knowledge synthesis activities combining data (e.g. meta-analysis of scientific literature), integrating modeling results, developing methodological guidelines (e.g. on monitoring, reporting and verifying changes in agricultural soil carbon stocks), ii) co-designing with stakeholders a pilot knowledge system on agricultural SOC sequestration integrated to the Online Collaborative Platform (OCP). This knowledge system will include geo-referenced meta-data and (when possible) data from experiments, observations and surveys, as well as from models and synthesis activities and methodological guidelines developed by CIRACSA. These tasks will lead to an enhanced international knowledge system delivering improved scientific resources of both global and local significance (e.g. maps showing the technical potential for SOC sequestration of diverse agricultural practices).