The whole consortium met for the Kick-off Meeting in Ghent, Belgium, marking a significant milestone for MARVIC. The 2.5-day meeting was hosted by project coordinator ILVO from September 25 to 27, 2023 packed with scientific interactions and social events. Of course, it gave partners the chance to deepen their grasp on the project itself and build up the collaborations required to achieve the outlined goals.

While most sessions mirrored the structure of the project, with presentations and discussions on individual work packages, the event also dedicated time to focus on some of the most pressing challenges for the upscale of carbon farming solutions. A key highlight of the meeting was the panel discussion on baselines for MRV systems, moderated by the project coordinator, Greet Ruysschaert. This session featured contributions from external experts Panos Panagos and Emanuele Lugato from the JRC, alongside project partners Eric Ceschia from INRAE, Jan Peter Lesschen from Wageningen Environmental Research and Edouard Lanckriet from Agrosolutions. The discussion touched on some of the typical pain-points for MRV systems, including pros and cons between standards vs project-based baselines, or how to reward early adopters of carbon farming practices.

At the time, it seemed that the European Commission was in favour of standardised baselines to speed up the uptake of carbon farming by practitioners. While this was an acceptable position for many,scientists expressed that, for the generated credits to have high market value, standardised baselines must be specific enough to capture the nuance of individual pedo-climatic conditions and farming systems. To follow up on this conversation, the MARVIC consortium elaborated a document with a few recommendations on baselines for the Carbon Removal Certification Framework.