Scientific objectives

FairCarboN has three overarching scientific objectives :

1. Unearthing knowledge about the key processes affecting the carbon cycle, its links with other biogeochemical cycles (i.e., nitrogen, phosphorus, water), and their combined responses to global changes and to assess ecological, agricultural, and socioeconomic levers for facilitating the transition towards climate neutrality.

2. Supplying scientists and stakeholders with next-generation numerical models that have been validated using open-access datasets and that can be used to simulate multiscale shifts in carbon fluxes and storage in soils and vegetation

3. Working with diverse stakeholders (e.g., members of civil society, NGOs, policymakers) to create, test, and evaluate different land-use trajectories and regional resource management practices with a view to bolstering their implementation at local and national scales and to achieving climate neutrality.

To accomplish these objectives, FairCarboN will fuel exchanges among disciplines, environments, and stakeholders by deploying various tools:

• A competitive grant programme open to the entire community that funds research to significantly advance understanding of the key processes shaping the carbon cycle in continental ecosystems
• A target project that will build a wealth of unprecedented data on carbon storage dynamics associated with soils and plant biomass (ALAMOD)
• A target project that will develop integrated assessment models that stakeholders can use to create regional bioeconomies (SLAM-B)
• Target projects that provide support for existing research equipment and infrastructure by employing state-of-the-art tools to increase the coverage and coordination of continental ecosystem monitoring efforts (RIFT, CrosyeN, and CarboNium).