Proposed activities should:

• Develop, validate and apply pilot, innovative, robust, local soil carbon monitoring systems in line with the CRC Framework proposal, able to gather the data needed for the European Commission to set out standardised baselines reflecting the standard performance of comparable activities in similar social, economic, environmental and technological circumstances and geographical locations in Europe. These systems should also allow to evaluate achievable biophysical potential of carbon storage and related co-benefits of carbon farming activities, at land management parcel-scale and for the whole European territory, and help prioritise regions and actions for carbon farming.
• Investigate and develop approaches and methodologies for soil sampling pertinent to the granular level of the monitoring, including assessment and exploitation of the technological innovation opportunities and the potential to reduce monitoring costs.
• Leverage the power of existing remote sensing tools such as those typically employed in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) control, i.e., in conjunction with spatially explicit parcel data (e.g., Land Parcel Identification System – Geospatial Application (LPIS-GSA)); and develop a structured, standardized system for understanding and managing the direct effect of carbon farming practices on soil carbon (including the practices promoted by the CAP).
• Demonstrate and where possible expand the power of digital tools and technologies (including electronic databases and geographic information systems/geographically-explicit digital map data, remote sensing, artificial intelligence and machine learning) for (decreasing the costs of) the data collection, for establishing baselines and for the monitoring of carbon removal activities.
• Deliver guidance (e.g. manuals) for policymakers and certification bodies on soil monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), data collection protocols, and baselines against which action is quantified. Such guidance should be designed within the upcoming EU CRC Framework and in consultation with the Commission’s Expert Group on Carbon Removals.
• Develop and test harmonisation protocols within a distributed data management system for the integration and direct comparison of upcoming CRC data and existing spatially explicit information contained in national LULUCF inventories and other soil organic carbon datasets (such as LUCAS, and pertinent national datasets).
• Develop a framework to collect and analyse data coming from certificates (both within existing voluntary carbon markets and the upcoming CRC Framework), to define reliable ranges of carbon sequestration and outliers, and consolidate interoperable, quality-checked datasets.
• Use results of the above work to calibrate and validate modelling frameworks applicable to the monitoring methodologies mentioned above in this topic.
• Create metrics to gauge carbon sensitivity to perturbations, particularly those linked with climate change, by analysing different soil carbon fractions.
• Evaluate the permanency-related risks of release of carbon, using modelling scenarios.
• Address key uncertainties and scientific knowledge gaps that currently exist within carbon removal quantification methods, helping to develop a standardised MRV approach.
• Undertake an in-depth assessment of the market situation for carbon farming, building on existing and ongoing research, to assess the (expected) overall market impacts of carbon farming, including the potential income opportunities for farmers and other land managers, impacts on land productivity and land prices, and sensitivities over the “commodification” of carbon removals and ecosystem services, for different carbon farming activities (e.g. agroforestry, rewetting of land and other practices).
• Analyse the different channels and business strategies for the marketing of certified carbon removals, providing an overview of the current market and outlook for the next 10 years. This analysis should consider differences between marketing certified carbon removals within and outside the agri-food or forestry value chains and identify the relevant market players in each case.
• Create a network among existing carbon farming schemes across several European countries and scale up their activities by developing an interoperable digital marketplace, based on a geographically-explicit registry, that provides easier access to the carbon farming units certified by those different schemes. This registry should follow the rules set out in the CRC Framework and be consistent with Member States’ reporting in the LULUCF sector so as to enable Member States to improve their GHG inventory data. The registry should enable monetary transactions involving carbon credits, however the project(s) should not directly carry out such transactions.

The ‘carbon farming’ activities to be covered are those defined in the CRC Framework proposal. Whenever relevant, the synergies and trade-offs between carbon and nitrogen and their possible optimisation should be covered. All types of land, including forests and their above-ground biomass, where relevant, should be covered. In the case of the agricultural sector, organic farming, as an approach with potential to increase carbon sequestration in the soil, should be included.

Key information/data on soil carbon should be shared with land managers, to enable them to learn from peers and facilitate access to tailored advice and certification services to improve their soil management performance and verify the mitigation impact of their activities in view of possible certification. Given the necessity for new ideas that meet social needs, create social relationships and form new collaborations within this topic’s subject, proposals should integrate social innovation.