Programs

Synthesizing Science for Policy and Practice

This seminar-practicum focuses on synthesizing scientific evidence to address specific policy or practice challenges. For the 2026-2027 academic year, the course will concentrate on developing best-practice guidelines for measuring, reporting, and verifying (MRV) agricultural soil carbon credits. These guidelines will be applicable to voluntary markets, insetting, and nationally determined contributions. The course aims to fill a methodological gap by emphasizing empirical, direct quantification of soil carbon changes, rather than solely relying on models, to meet growing governmental and market demands. The course involves weekly one-hour and twenty-minute sessions and includes participation in a two-day workshop. This workshop, held in mid-October or early November, will bring together external professionals in soil carbon accounting to discuss and refine the best-practice guidelines on campus. The primary deliverable for students will be a draft set of these guidelines. This course is specifically designed for second-year students in Yale School of the Environment (YSE) Masters programs, with a cap of twelve students requiring an application for admission.