Call for Abstracts: Advancing MRV through Research Infrastructures at ICOS Science Conference 2026

The Call for Abstracts for the ICOS Science Conference 2026 is now open, and we warmly invite the eLTER community to contribute to Session 27: Research Infrastructures for MRV Development. The deadline for abstract submission is 6 March 2026, 15:00 CET.

Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) underpins the credibility of national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, emissions trading systems, and emerging carbon removal certification schemes. Research Infrastructures (RIs) such as ICOS and eLTER are uniquely positioned to co-develop services that directly support MRV of carbon fluxes, carbon stocks, and land-based carbon removals. However, the systematic use of atmospheric and ecosystem GHG observations for these applications remains limited.

By drawing on multi-decadal datasets on greenhouse gas exchange, soil carbon dynamics, and land-use change, RI-based services can enhance MRV while also shedding light on key co-benefits and trade-offs, including biodiversity, water regulation, and ecosystem resilience. Building on their complementary strengths, RIs can bridge observational science, modelling, and applied climate services—ensuring robustness, interoperability, and long-term policy relevance.

Scope of the session

The conveners invite contributions demonstrating how:

  • Measurement-based approaches and flux station data can support and verify MRV

  • Model–data integration and data-driven approaches (including machine learning) advance MRV systems

  • Uncertainty quantification, error propagation, and cost–accuracy analyses improve credibility and usability

  • MRV applications can better inform policy and decision-making

Interdisciplinary submissions that connect science, technology, and policy perspectives are particularly encouraged and will help shape next-generation RI-based MRV services.

Session conveners

Thomas Dirnböck (Environment Agency Austria), Liisa Kulmala (Finnish Meteorological Institute), Eric Ceschia (INRAE), Istem Fer Polat (Finnish Meteorological Institute), Tiphaine Tallec (University of Toulouse), Layla Höckerstedt (Finnish Meteorological Institute), Ville Kasurinen (ICOS ERIC), Hannes Mollenhauer (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ), Ulf Mallast (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ)  

About the conference

The ICOS Science Conference 2026 (#ICOS2026SC) brings together leading scientists from around the world to present and discuss cutting-edge research on greenhouse gases. The conference will take place 15–17 September 2026 in Lund, Sweden, with online participation available.

We look forward to strong participation from the eLTER community and to insightful contributions that help advance credible, observation-based MRV for climate mitigation.