Opportunity for early career conservationists: Join the 10th Student Conference on Conservation Science

The HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research invites you to the 10th Student Conference on Conservation Science, SCCS Europe 2025, which will take place from 2 to 6 September 2025 in Balatonvilágos, Hungary.SCCS Europe offers young conservationists, students and early career researchers the opportunit (...)

Safeguard’s event explores the economic, environmental, and social benefits of pollinators in agriculture

Last week, the Institute for Environmental Policy (IEEP), in collaboration with the European Landowners Organisation (ELO), organised a Safeguard project event on the role and the economic, environmental, and social advantages of pollinators within agricultural landscapes, providing insights into fa (...)

Practical recommendations for wild pollinator conservation: An EU project’s collection of practice abstracts now published

The Horizon 2020 research project Safeguard (GA No. 101003476) publishes a collection of practice abstracts of key project outputs on the EU CAP Network connecting research with practitioners.Wild pollinators are among the most crucial contributors to healthy ecosystems and thriving biodiversity. Un (...)

EU pollinator projects presented at Safeguard’s last consortium meeting in Mons

During Safeguard’s fourth and final consortium meeting held between 17 and 19 March 2025, partners gathered in Mons, Belgium, to discuss the novel and inspiring results generated by the project over the last 4 years.The meeting concluded with presentations from different EU pollinator projects, sync (...)

Expanding current assessments of the status and trends of European wild pollinators: Safeguard’s last consortium meeting in Mons

Last week, Safeguard’s 4th and final consortium meeting concluded! We gathered in Mons, Belgium, to discuss the novel and inspiring results generated by the project over the last 4 years.In order to accommodate travel to the meeting, the first day started on the afternoon of Monday, 17 March, kickin (...)

Expanding the horizon: Safeguard joins LinkedIn and Bluesky

In an effort to ensure the uptake of project results by a broad and diverse audience, the Safeguard project is expanding its online presence by launching official accounts on LinkedIn and Bluesky. These platforms will serve as key channels for sharing the latest results, developments, and insights f (...)

Gaming policies for a pollinator-friendly landscape: A look back at Safeguard’s Buzzing Table workshop

On 10 December 2024, the H2020 Safeguard project and the Horizon Europe BioAgora project held a science-policy workshop “Gaming policies for a pollinator-friendly landscape” bringing together scientists, policymakers and NGOs passionate about protecting pollinators and their vital role in our ecosys (...)

Join Safeguard's event "Farming for pollinators: Unlocking economic and ecological gains"

The Institute for Environmental Policy (IEEP), in collaboration with the European Landowners Organisation (ELO), is organising a science-policy conference to explore the crucial yet often overlooked role of pollinators in agriculture. This event is organised in the context of Safeguard, a four-year (...)

New Safeguard policy brief calls for action in policy and practice to support a pollinator-friendly future

Safeguard has just released its second policy brief outlining the indirect drivers of pollinator decline, linked to the diverse (and diverging) perspectives on pollinators in both policy and practice.Pollinators are one of the most essential contributors to healthy ecosystems and thriving biodiversi (...)

Landscape management and improved habitat quality can contribute to pollinator conservation, Safeguard study finds

In a recent Safeguard study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, researchers investigate how local habitat quality as well as agri-environmental schemes (AES) and configuration of the surrounding landscape can contribute to the preservation of pollinator diversity.H (...)

New Safeguard study finds that reduced mowing boosts pollinator abundance in UK urban lawns

A recent Safeguard study published in the Conservation Evidence Journal investigates how the different mowing frequency of urban lawn spaces in the United Kingdom is interlinked with pollinator abundance, suggesting better lawn management practices.The loss of habitat and foraging resources for poll (...)

New video highlights Safeguard's achievements in 2024

In 2024, the Safeguard project worked around the clock to support a healthy world for European wild pollinators.Find out what Safeguard has achieved this year in our new video highlighting some of the project’s most notable accomplishments – from published papers to attended and organised events.Wit (...)

Holiday wishes from Safeguard

Safeguard wishes you warm and cheerful holidays buzzing with excitement and laughter!Thank you for supporting us throughout the years in our mission to substantially contribute to Europe’s capacity to reverse the losses of wild pollinators. (...)

“Safeguard Outcomes” video campaign relaunched: Partners talk about their work on the project so far

Earlier this year, Safeguard launched a video campaign to make Safeguard outcomes even more accessible, highlighting the project’s efforts to contribute to a better world for wild pollinators across Europe and beyond. The YouTube collection includes a series of short video interviews conducted among (...)

Safe-Hub: Towards a new single nexus point for data, information and toolkits on pollinator conservation

This press release was originally published by EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo.The EU-funded Safeguard project has just launched the Safeguard Knowledge Exchange Hub (Safe-Hub), an integrative platform facilitating access to new and exciting knowledge on pollinators at national and European levels.In a (...)

From Hungary to Japan: Safeguard took part in three international events over the summer

This summer, Safeguard travelled across the world to spread the word about the project's mission and achievements. On behalf of the project’s communication and dissemination partner, Pensoft Publishers, Safeguard attended three major events in Europe and Asia showcasing various promotional materials (...)

Connecting Eastern and Western Europe in conservation biology at Safeguard’s SCCS Europe 2024

Between 10 and 14 September 2024, young conservationists, students and early career researchers gathered together at Balatonvilágos, Hungary, for the 9th Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS Europe). The Safeguard-supported event was organised by the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Researc (...)

Call for innovative initiatives protecting pollinators: European Bee Award 2024

If you are involved in innovative initiatives aimed at protecting bees or other pollinators, the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) and the European Agricultural Machinery Industry Association (CEMA) invite you to submit your project for this year’s European Bee Award by 6 September 2024.Ever s (...)

Safeguard materials showcased at World Biodiversity Forum 2024: From Science to Action

Last month, between 16-21 June, the third World Biodiversity Forum took place in Davos, Switzerland, bringing together hundreds of experts and researchers in the field of biodiversity from all over the world. The aim of the in-person event was to promote transdisciplinary exchange between science, p (...)

Safeguard was presented at the 8th meeting of the Working Group on Pollinators

On 26 June 2024, Safeguard was presented at the 8th meeting of the Working Group on Pollinators (WGP), a subgroup of the EU Biodiversity Platform.The WGP, chaired by DG Environment (Unit D.2 "Natural Capital and Ecosystem Health"), brings together the European Commission, Member States' representati (...)

Safeguard study explores the socio-psychological drivers of pollinator conservation

A new Safeguard study published in the People and Nature journal investigates the socio-psychological factors influencing individual behaviour in favour of conservation interventions for pollinators in rural versus urban environments across three European countries: Germany, Italy and the Netherland (...)

Call for submissions to Landscape Ecology collection

The open-access journal Landscape Ecology invites submissions to the collection “Effects of agricultural landscapes on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and yield”. Agriculture is the leading cause of farmland biodiversity loss and an associated decline of various ecosystem services. Nevertheless, a (...)

Safeguard experts at the Sino-EU symposium on pollinator monitoring in Nanchong, China

Last month, Safeguard’s mission to reverse pollinator declines went beyond Europe’s borders, landing at the Sino-EU symposium on pollinator monitoring in Nanchong, China. The event was held between 16 and 17 May 2024 and jointly organised by the Nanchong People's Association for Friendship with Fore (...)

Opportunity for early career conservation biologists: Register now for SCCS Europe 2024 in Hungary

The 9th Student Conference on Conservation Science, SCCS Europe, will take place at Lake Balaton, Hungary, between 10 and 14 September 2024, connecting Eastern and Western Europe in conservation biology. The event is organised by the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research and the Regional Centre for (...)

Open PhD position (m/f/d) in Animal Ecology at the University of Würzburg

The Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology at the University of Würzburg seeks applicants for an open PhD position for 36 months starting this year (salary: TV-L 65%). Highly motivated candidates (m/f/d) with a strong interest in wild bees and hoverflies, the consequences of land-use chan (...)

Safeguard materials showcased at the Europe Day Festival in Budapest

On Sunday, 12 May 2024, ten thousand people celebrated Europe Day 2024 in the city centre of Budapest, Szabadság Square. The Europe Day festival included free concerts, children's activities and a “20 years – 20 km – EU run" to mark the 20th anniversary since Hungary joined the European Union (2004) (...)

Promote Pollinators invites to join the webinar ‘European monitoring framework for pollinating insects’

The Coalition of the Willing on Pollinators, Promote Pollinators, is hosting a free webinar ‘European monitoring framework for pollinating insects’ which will be held on 17 May 2024 at 13:15 – 14:45 EAT (12:15 – 13:45 CEST). This free event will focus on the European monitoring framework for pollina (...)

PhD opportunity in Dijon, France: Pollinators and crop pollination services

Interested in pursuing a research career and studying pollinators and crop pollination services? We have good news! There is a new PhD opportunity in Dijon, France.The successful PhD candidate will:study the efficacy of flowering strips in supporting the pollinator communities and pollination of a c (...)

Recent Safeguard paper reveals new findings on the floral and pollinator communities in Hungary

A new Safeguard study published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment contributes to filling in knowledge gaps about the efficiency and dynamics of wildflower plantings and their relation to pollinators in the farmland regions of East-Central Europe.Researchers, amongst whom partn (...)

Project partners on their achievements so far: New social media campaign showcases Safeguard outcomes

Since the beginning of the project in 2021, Safeguard partners have been working towards a better world for wild pollinators across Europe and beyond. To make these outcomes easy to find and access, Safeguard launches a series of short video interviews conducted among consortium members, providing i (...)

Preserving EU wild pollinators: Safeguard’s Third Annual General Meeting

Between 20 and 23 February 2024, partners from 25 institutions across 15 countries gathered in Padua, Italy for Safeguard’s third Annual General Meeting to showcase project results and discuss future actions towards sustainable pollination across Europe and reversing the losses of wild pollinators. (...)

Join the INRAE team: Open permanent position in bee ecotoxicology

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (INRAE) is recruiting a junior research scientist on bee ecotoxicology to join their team in Avignon, Provence, an important hotspot for bee biodiversity (Mediterranean Basin).This position aims to strengthen the lab e (...)

Focus on Urban Bee Pastures: Safeguard outputs showcased in Budapest

On 31 January 2024, project partner Viktor Szigeti from the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research held an educational public presentation in Budapest, Hungary, sharing insights into plant-pollinator relationships, as well as Safeguard outputs.The presentation, titled: ‘Focus on Urban Bee Pastures: (...)

Open postdoctoral position at SLU: Honeybee welfare and protection

The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) seeks applicants for a postdoctoral position in honeybee welfare and protection at the Department of Ecology. The research group’s main focus is on insect pathology and disease transmission concerning honeybee health, but also bumblebees and wild (...)

Making results accessible to stakeholders: Safeguard stakeholder summaries

Following our mission to protect European wild pollinators, Safeguard has published an extensive amount of project publications with great practical value. To make results more understandable and easily available to stakeholders, Safeguard issues a series of stakeholder summaries of key project publ (...)

Holiday wishes from Safeguard

Safeguard wishes you a merry Christmas and a joyful new year!Let 2024 bring us BEEautiful moments, laughter and growth!Don't forget to watch our new video, highlighting our main accomplishments in 2023.Find the video here. (...)

Safeguard’s Open Science Collection featured on CORDIS

Last month, The Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) featured Safeguard and our new open-access collection of research articles on its website.To increase the visibility and recognition of research outcomes on wild bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects, we have (...)

New video presenting Safeguard's highlights of 2023

This year has been full of excitement and productivity for us!Find out what Safeguard has achieved in 2023 in our new video highlighting some of the project’s most notable accomplishments – from published papers to attended and organised events.With this video, we would also like to express our deep (...)

The Safeguard project showcased at the European Bee Award

The European Bee Award is an annual event, established in 2014 by the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) and the European Agricultural Industry Association (CEMA), to acknowledge innovative, efficient, and scalable projects safeguarding bees and pollinators.This year's edition of the European B (...)

Trends, impacts and conservation of wild pollinators: Safeguard presented at the EU Pollinator Week 2023

From honeybees and flies to bumblebees and hoverflies, pollinators play a crucial role in maintaining our ecosystems, food chains, and human well-being. To spread the buzz of the newest science and policy actions regarding existing challenges and potential solutions for the protection of European po (...)

Guidelines for monitoring pollinators in urban habitats by Safeguard partners of IEEP

Researchers from the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and Safeguard, Laure-Lou Tremblay and Evelyn Underwood, have recently developed comprehensive guidance for cities to monitor pollinators in urban areas.The report addresses the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the EU Pollinator (...)

Join the webinar ‘Pollinators in the urban environment’

The Coalition of the Willing on Pollinators, Promote Pollinators, invites you to their free webinar ‘Pollinators in the Urban Environment’ which will be held on 8 December 2023 at 15:00 CEST.The two-hour online event aims to share knowledge on the relevance of pollinators in the urban environment an (...)

POLLEN 2024: Call for paper submissions

The Political Ecology Network (POLLEN) Organising Committee invites paper submissions for a panel proposal to its biennial conference taking place in June next year.The POLLEN24 will be held on 10-12 June 2024 both online and on-site in three separate locations – Lima (Peru), Dodoma (Tanzania) and L (...)

Safeguard study reveals new records for the Serbian wild bee fauna

In a recent study, researchers, amongst whom Safeguard partners Ante Vujić and Andrijana Andrić of the University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences (UNSPMF), present new records for the wild bee fauna (Hymenoptera, Anthophila) of Serbia.Pollinators play a crucial role in our ecosystems by pollinating (...)

Overview of an EU project’s wild pollinator conservation efforts: Safeguard’s open-access collection

This press release was originally published by EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo.The EU Horizon 2020 project Safeguard has opened an outcomes collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal.For the past decade, the European Union has been actively investing in innovative projects, addressing (...)

Safeguard at the XII European Congress of Entomology

Between 16 and 20 October 2023, entomologists from around the globe gathered in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, for the XII European Congress of Entomology (ECE 2023). The event, hosted in the Cultural and Conference Center of Heraklion, featured lectures from international experts, numerous symposia, ora (...)

Safeguard partners contribute to an updated list of 3000 European bee and hoverfly species

Recently, an updated list of around 3000 European bee and hoverfly species, co-authored by Safeguard partners, was published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity, aiming to contribute to pollinator conservation.In times of disturbing global changes affecting pollinators worldwide, more k (...)

Integrating pollinator conservation into urban greening plans: Safeguard’s second urban-greening workshop

Green urban spaces provide a wide range of benefits for people and the planet. They reduce air, water and noise pollution, provide protection from flooding, droughts, heat waves and much more. In an increasingly human-dominated world of expanding cities, integrating the conservation of biodiversity (...)

Safeguard in a nutshell: Discover the project with our new project video

We are thrilled to announce the release of Safeguard's brand-new introductory video! In just four minutes, the video offers an insightful overview of the project's mission and objectives, as well as the critical issue of wild pollinator declines.The video is now available for viewing on YouTube, so (...)

A visual window into Safeguard: Our new one-pager is out

We are excited to reveal our new one-pager which offers a glimpse into Safeguard! Tap into our world and explore how we aim to substantially contribute to reversing the loss of wild pollinators across Europe. The new one-pager encapsulates Safeguard's essence and introduces some of the invaluable pr (...)

Safeguard launches a collection in Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO)

In an effort to increase the project’s visibility and improve the dissemination of all publicly available project outputs, Safeguard has recently launched an open research collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal.The RIO journal intends to stimulate a culture shift in research com (...)

New Safeguard study: Mate-guarding success depends on male investment in a butterfly

Recently, authors, including Safeguard partner Viktor Szigeti from the Centre for Ecological Research (OK), presented an article on the mate-guarding investment of Clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne) butterflies. This is the first quantitative study to investigate potential factors on which male i (...)

Safeguard study will present a systematic map methodology to catalogue and evaluate pollinator tools in agricultural landscapes

In a recent research manuscript published in the Ecological Solutions and Evidence journal, Safeguard researchers Ciara Dwyer, Yann Clough and Henrik Smith of Lund University (ULUND) present a systematic map methodology that will collate and catalogue relevant tools relating to insect pollinators an (...)

Safeguard webinar on urban pollinators: How can cities protect pollinators and build resilience to climate change

Wednesday, 20 September 202310:30 to 12:15 CETOnlineWe are happy to invite you to the online event: “Urban pollinators: how can cities protect pollinators and build resilience to climate change?”. The event will be held online on September 20, 2023 (10:30 to 12:15 CET) and will address the topic of (...)

New Safeguard study explores pollinator-promoting interventions in Eastern European urban areas

Urbanisation has been identified as a significant contributor to the decline of pollinators, however, properly managed green spaces in urban areas have the potential to reverse this trend by providing essential foraging and nesting habitats. In contrast to the USA and Western Europe where such polli (...)

European Bee Award: Call for innovative initiatives protecting pollinators

Are you involved in any innovative initiatives aimed at protecting bees or other pollinators? If the answer is yes, the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) and the European Agricultural Machinery Industry Association (CEMA) invite you to submit your project for this year’s European Bee Award by (...)

New annotated checklist of the wild bees of Europe (Hymenoptera: Anthophila)

With over 20,000 species described globally, wild bees are one example of a highly emblematic insect group for which conservation is tightly linked to both human welfare and ecosystem health. In the last two decades, however, high-profile reports have highlighted steep declines in both bee abundance (...)

Safeguard’s global meta-analysis investigates the effects of animal pollination on food crop quality

Recent Safeguard paper published in the journal Nature Communications provides a global quantitative review on the effects of animal pollination on several aspects of food quality including both organoleptic characteristics and nutritional value.Over the years, there have been several global analyse (...)

The INRAE Safeguard team took part in the annual bee festival APIdays

Representatives of Safeguard’s partner French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) participated in this year’s bee festival APIdays (les APIdays – Fête des abeilles) in Dijon, France.The public communication event, organised by the city of Dijon and its botanic g (...)

New Safeguard study: Pollinator competition and the structure of floral resources

A recent study published in Ecography, authored by Safeguard partners Dr. Douglas Sponsler and Prof. Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter from the University of Würzburg (JMU), proposes a framework for examining the temporal, spatial, and functional aspects of floral resource availability.The paper “Pollinator c (...)

Bee and pollinator health in focus: EU report highlights opportunities and knowledge gaps

Last year, the European Research Executive Agency (REA), Unit B.3 “Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Environment”,  organised a workshop, focused on pollinators and their vital role in the European Union. The event, held on October 10, 2022, brought together representatives from key EU-funded proje (...)

Safeguard takes part in a new exhibition dedicated to pollinators in Sofia

Last Wednesday, June 28, 2023, the new temporary exhibition ‘The pollinators we can’t live without’ was officially opened at the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NMNHS) in Sofia. Safeguard, along with the projects B-GOOD and PoshBee, presented results related (...)

New exhibition dedicated to pollinators opens in Sofia

This press release was originally published by EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo.On June 28, 2023, at 6 PM (EEST), the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia will present the temporary exhibition ‘The pollinators we can’t live without’.The new exhibition of the N (...)

Safeguard featured by project partner IEEP

In a recent article titled “How IEEP and the Safeguard research project are supporting the EU pollinators initiative” project partner IEEP - Institute for European Environmental Policy presents an overview of the Safeguard project and its purpose.The author of the article, Laure-Lou Tremblay, takes (...)

New Safeguard study presents updated distribution maps of bumble bees in Hungary

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research researchers investigate the effects of climate change, warming winters and changes in landscape structure on the distribution and frequency of Bombus (Hymenoptera, Apidae), the genus of bumble bees, in Hungary.The study, co-written b (...)

OPEN POSITION: Postdoc vacancy in Animal Ecology (m/w/d) “Pollinator Ecology” at the University of Würzburg

The Department for Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg (Germany), offers a Research Scientist (Postdoc) position with a focus on pollinator ecology for three years with a possible extension. The position builds upon long-term research activities of the group on the ecology of (...)

Safeguard study discovers a nonlinear decline in body mass and thorax width as natural butterfly population age

Recently, authors including Safeguard researcher Viktor Szigeti from the Centre for Ecological Research (OK) have published the first study documenting phenotypic senescence in a natural butterfly population, using in vivo measurements.The paper published in the Ecology and Evolution journal and tit (...)

Open postdoc position at INRAE: Multi-trophic crop-weed-insect networks and plant performance (TROPHIC)

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) is seeking applicants for a postdoctoral position to support the multi-trophic crop-weed-insect networks and plant performance (TROPHIC). The position is available for 2 years at the UMR Agroecology in Dijon, Franc (...)

Calling all early career conservation biologists: register now for SCCS Europe 2023 in Hungary

The 8th Student Conference on Conservation Science, SCCS Europe, will take place from 13 to 16 September 2023 in Balatonvilágos, Hungary, connecting Eastern and Western Europe in conservation biology.About the eventSCCS Europe provides a unique opportunity for young conservationists, students and ea (...)

European Red List of Insect Taxonomists: Assessing the taxonomic expertise capacity in Europe

Insect taxonomic expertise in Europe is declining, according to an EU study.Pollination, matter decomposition, bio-control. These are just a few of the vital services that insects around the world are providing to balance our ecosystems and human well-being. By identifying, describing and naming ins (...)

New Safeguard study investigates trait-based effects of plant invasion on plant–pollinator communities

A new observational study on 10 invasive plant species, published in Insect Conservation and Diversity, explores the trait-based effects of plant invasion on functional diversity and floral resources, hoverfly and bee communities.To investigate this relation, the researchers conducted field studies (...)

Мaking research accessible and relevant to policy making: Safeguard’s Second Annual General Meeting

Consortium members of the Safeguard project met up between 6 and 10 March 2023 for the project’s second Annual General Meeting. The four-day-long event, hosted by the partner institution Pensoft Publishers, was marked by insightful presentations, vivid discussions and an overview of the project’s de (...)

Safeguard’s policy brief featured on CORDIS

Recently, an article titled ‘Pollinators, biodiversity and sustainable development go hand in hand’ was published on the European Commission’s platform CORDIS. The piece presents Safeguard’s policy brief, highlighting the vital relationship between pollinating insects and the UN’s Sustainable Develo (...)

Revision of the EU Pollinators Initiative: A new deal for pollinators

On 24 January 2023, the European Commission presented a revised action framework for the 2018 EU Pollinators Initiative. The revision sets out a path for the EU to meet the challenge of pollinator decline and its consequences on food security, human health, quality of life and ecosystems. Together w (...)

The magical world of pollinators around us

On 17. January 2023, Safeguard partner Dr. Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki of the Centre for Ecological Research (OK) gave a public presentation in Budapest, Hungary. The presentation titled ‘The magical world of pollinators around us’ focused on the results of an ongoing monitoring study in the bee pastur (...)

Safeguard's highlights: 2022 at a glance

2023 is here and the Safeguard team can't wait to see what it will bring us! Would you like to know what Safeguard achieved last year? Let's take a look back on some of our most notable accomplishments from 2022. With this video we also want to express our gratitude to the audience for their support (...)

Welcome to the Safeguard team, Willem!

Safeguard is pleased to present its new post-doctoral researcher! Willem Proesmans is a biologist who obtained his PhD at Ghent University on the role of small forest fragments for wild pollinators in intensive agricultural landscapes. After that, he started a postdoc at the French National Research (...)

Safeguard wishes you a happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

Happy holidays!Photo: Safeguard Holiday card (...)

How to integrate pollinator conservation objectives into urban greening plans: Safeguard workshop

On 8 December, Safeguard held its first EU policy workshop "Urban greening for pollinators: from policy to practice" in collaboration with EuroCities and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. The goal was to identify how to integrate pollinator conservation objectives into urban greening pla (...)

Fostering policy dialogue and knowledge exchange of pollinator protection: new Safeguard policy brief

Safeguard released its first policy brief in occassion of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15). It was distributed at a side event and was showcased at the EU commission's stand. The side event – titled “Pollinator protection: strengt (...)

Functional traits of plants and pollinators explain resource overlap between honeybees and wild pollinators

Honeybees have been introduced worldwide, and, therefore, often cohabit with wild pollinators. As their hives can host more than 50,000 individuals, their abundance in natural and managed habitats can be extremely high. In this context, Safeguard partners observed plant–pollinator interactions in 51 (...)

Safeguard EU policy workshop on urban greening plans and pollinator conservation: call for city officers

Safeguard is organising its first EU policy workshop "Urban greening for pollinators: from policy to practice" in collaboration with EuroCities and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. The event will be held online on 8 December 9:30-14:30 (Brussels time, UTC+1). The EU Biodiversity Strateg (...)

Temperature as the main driver shaping wild bee communities

More than half of the world's population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase. Even if urbanisation is widely regarded as a major threat to global biodiversity, recent research highlighted the potential ecological importance of cities for pollinators. Key determinants of c (...)

EU Pollinators Initiative: expert consultation workshops report available now

In mid-2018, the European Commission adopted the first-ever EU Pollinators Initiative, to enable Member States to address the decline of pollinators in the EU and contribute to global conservation efforts. As part of a broader consultation that collects stakeholder views and proposals in the context (...)

Chinese collaboration project with Safeguard is officially funded

Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (MOST) has announced a key project of "Intergovernmental Cooperation on International Science and Technology Innovation", and our Chinese partners in Safeguard Project have been awarded to participate in this project. (...)

IUCN Red List: Over one third of hoverflies threatened with extinction in Europe

Hoverflies are a large, beautiful, and exceptionally diverse family of insects. As the second most important pollinator group behind bees, they are also essential to our lives, providing an ecosystem service that forms the very foundation of our food system and indeed our lives.According to the firs (...)

Florence Damiens joins Safeguard as a new postdoctoral researcher at SLU

Safeguard is happy to welcome Florence Damiens to the project team! Florence is a social science postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Ecology, SLU University. Florence holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Public Policy from The Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and École (...)

New #WildPollinatorResearch campaign: A focus on the previous research of Safeguard’s experts

Safeguard works hard to substantially contribute to Europe’s capacity to reverse the losses of wild pollinators. To achieve this goal, a diverse research team consisting of world-leading researchers, NGOs, industry and policy experts, joins forces, with each member adding value to the project with t (...)

#SafeguardFaces: new campaign presenting the faces behind the project

At Safeguard, we believe that diversity can drive creativity and innovation. Our team consists of scientists and other professionals, who closely integrate research on ecological, economic, social and policy dimensions of pollinator diversity and multiple ecosystem services. Each member adds value t (...)

Welcome to new post-doc Zafarani Uwingabire!

Zafarani Uwingabire is joining Safeguard as a post-doctoral researcher at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (INRAe), Agroecology Joint Research Unit in Dijon, France. She is interested in the analysis and development of sustainable agricultural and foo (...)

Join the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) webinar!

Promote Pollinators is hosting an online event in technical cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on September 9th at 15:00 CEST. The webinar will focus on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), the practical way of reducing the use of pesticides, one of the m (...)

European Bee Award 2022 edition

Since 2014, the Bee Award is committed to find common solutions for the benefit of biodiversity by rewarding projects protecting pollinators.The European Bee Award is open to everyone.We reward farmers, landowners, research institutes, academia, and private and public organisations who develop outst (...)

Bees and pesticides: EFSA launched a public consultation on their draft guidance document

The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Pesticide Peer Review Unit has launched an open consultation on the draft guidance for bees and pesticides. The new document covers the risk assessment of plant protection products and bees, covering honey bees, bumble bees and solitary bees.In 2013, EFSA (...)

Hungary joins the Promote Pollinators Coalition

The pollinators of Europe are facing many challenges. Their preservation is of utmost importance since pollination is essential for the continuing function of natural ecosystems and plays a crucial role in agricultural output. Given the growing attention on the values and conservation of pollinators (...)

A strong proposal for a Nature Restoration Law for EU`s damaged ecosystems

On 22nd June 2022, the Commission adopted pioneering proposals to restore damaged ecosystems and bring nature back across Europe, from agricultural land and seas, to forests and urban environments. Under this proposal for a Nature Restoration Law, legally binding targets for nature restoration (...)

Safeguard’s response to the EU Pollinators Initiative revision consultation

The European Commission held a public consultation to collect views on the implementation of the EU Pollinators Initiative and gather suggestions on how to strengthen the current framework on wild pollinators to meet its long-term objective to reverse the decline of pollinators by 2030.  The Safegua (...)

(2/2) Wildflower Budapest 2021 programme: results and experiences of the first year

Positive experiences:The locally typical plant species were found everywhere (in addition to the species of grass seed mixtures that had been previously sown and species with wide tolerance range that are almost ubiquitous). Protected species have appeared in several places.The best performing areas (...)

(1/2) Wildflower Budapest 2021 programme: results and experiences of the first year

An article presenting the "Wildflower Budapest 2021" project and its first-year results was recently published on the website of the Municipality of Budapest. The research group of Safeguard partner Dr. András Báldi of the Centre for Ecological Research (OK) collaborated in the programme.See the art (...)

Join Safeguard: Open Postdoc Position at the Department of Ecology at SLU

What factors keep pollinator-unfriendly practices in place? A social scientific investigation.The Department of Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences offers a PhD-candidate position in close collaboration with the Department of Urban and Rural Development in Uppsala, Sweden. The (...)

OPEN POSITION: PhD vacancy in Asian Honey Bee Ecology at University of Würzburg

The Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, invites applications for a postdoc position to support the examination of the foraging ecology and mechanisms of coexistence of Asian honey bee species (A. cerana, A. dorsata, A. florea). The successful candidate will wor (...)

Bee highways: how they work and why we need them

A new article published in The Conversation journal outlines the importance of bee highways in putting a stop to the alarming decline in the insect’s population.Pollinating insects have a crucial role in helping provide the food we eat, the flowers we see and the vast biodiversity on the planet. Bee (...)

New research shows the interactive effects of climate and land use on pollinator diversity

A new research article published in the Science Advances Journal calls for more research attention to the largely unknown interactive effects of changes in climate and land use on pollinating insects. The article, officially published on 6. May 2022, is a collaborative effort of several academic ins (...)

Supporting Ukrainian candidates in future available Safeguard vacancies

Formed by a pan-European consortium (including China), Safeguard promotes transparency and collaboration between its partners and beyond to guarantee the open, multi-disciplinary, and collaborative science across Europe.In relation to this, we would like to express our tremendous solidarity with the (...)

New research: analysing the effects of arable cultivated land on wild pollinating species in Hungary

A new research article by Dr. Anikó Kovacs-Hostyanszki (Centre for Ecological Research, Hungary) outlines the importance of pollinating insects for the overall health of ecosystems in light of the decreasing number of flower plants. Pollinating insects suffer disproportionately from large-scale farm (...)

Opportunity for Early Career Professionals: Student Conference on Conservation Science SCCS Hungary, 2022

Event summary: SCCS Europe – Connecting Eastern and Western Europe in conservation biology Balatonvilágos (Lake Balaton), Hungary, 14 - 17 September 2022What to expect: We are delighted to invite you to the seventh SCCS Europe in 2022, organised by the Centre for Ecological Research this autumn. SCC (...)

OPEN POSITION: Social science postdoc for co-development of biodiversity enhancing strategies within organic farming at Aarhus University

Position no longer availableThe Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, invites applications for a postdoc position to support development of social science, and modelling of bees and other animal species within the Social-Ecological Systems Simulation centre (SESS)   Job description (...)

Safeguard’s First Annual General Meeting

Between 5 – 8 April 2022, consortium members and other stakeholders of the Safeguard project met in Seville, Spain, for the project’s first Annual General Meeting (AGM). The three-day-long event was hosted by the University of Seville and entailed informative presentations, in-depth discussions, as (...)

Safeguard wishes you a happy and memorable Easter!

Safeguard wishes you a happy and memorable Easter!Photo: Safeguard Easter holiday card (...)

Join Safeguard now: Open PhD opportunity for Nitrogen deposition at University of Bordeaux/INRAE

University of Bordeaux offers a Nitrogen Deposition PhD position in the BIOGECO - BIOdiversity, Genes & Communities Unit in Bordeaux, France. The successful candidate will work as part of Safeguard, which brings together world-leading researchers, NGOs, industry and policy experts to help Europe (...)

Two open PhD positions in Ecology at SLU

Open PhD position in ecology at SLU: join Safeguard now!The Department of Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences offers a PhD-candidate position in agricultural ecology placed in Uppsala, Sweden.The successful candidate will work as part of Safeguard and will investigate how ecol (...)

Committee of the Regions adopts opinion on the EU Pollinators Initiative

At its Plenary Session on 26 January 2022, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted the Opinion "Local and regional authorities accelerating the implementation of the EU Pollinators Initiative". Here, we highlight some of the key calls and commitments outlined in the opinion. The rapporte (...)

Safeguard featured in ELO's Activity Report and Newsletter

The European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) is one of Safeguard’s project partners. ELO is committed to promoting a sustainable and prosperous countryside and to increasing awareness relating to environmental and agricultural issues. Engaging various stakeholders, ELO develops policy recommendations (...)

Open interdisciplinary postdoctoral position at INRAE: join Safeguard now!

INRAE offers a postdoctoral position in the INRAE Agroecology multidisciplinary research unit in Dijon, France. The successful candidate will work as part of Safeguard, which brings together world-leading researchers, NGOs, industry and policy experts to help Europe reverse the losses of wild pollin (...)

(2/2) Safeguard community advances with a series of online workshops

Data synthesis: the workshop delivered informative discussions and insightful feedback about the collection of environmental data. Many ideas about data synthesis were presented and discussed (analysing aspects of diversity; analyses across different habitats etc.). As a next step, the leaders of th (...)

(1/2) Safeguard community advances with a series of online workshops

It will be an exaggeration to say that most people barely remember what working on international projects was like before the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is true that we got used to “the new normal” – seemingly endless virtual meetings, repurposing our homes into offices, all our colleagues su (...)

Safeguard team members meet for a field workshop in Würzburg, Germany

Despite the ongoing global pandemic and the many limitations that the world is facing as a result, Safeguard members managed to successfully gather for the first physical meeting of the project, between 29 and 30 November, 2021. Project partners met in Würzburg, Germany where the group took on an ed (...)

Safeguard is awarded "Project of the Month" by the European Commission

Each month the European Commission honours a Horizon 2020 project as “Project of the Month”. Safeguard is very glad to announce that the project has achieved this excellence in the month of October 2021 with an article on EC’s primary source of results CORDIS. Safeguard has been recognised to be a c (...)

Lund University is recruiting

The Faculty of Science at the Lund University is looking to recruit up to four Associate Senior Lecturers. The successful candidates will be given the opportunity to develop their independence as researchers and teachers.The call is open to all research fields at the Faculty of Science. The employme (...)

Happy holidays from Safeguard!

Safeguard wishes you a very happy holiday season and a joyful and prosperous New Year!Photo: Safeguard Holiday card (...)

The consequences of climate change and land use on biodiversity and ecosystem services are disentangled, according to a new research

A recently published article in the open-access journal “Methods in Ecology and Evolution” gives more insight into the currently lacking long-term data on biodiversity trends.In the Anthropocene, climate and land-use change are major causes of environmental deterioration, but little is understood ab (...)

Linking flowers to pollinators: Relation between floral resources and pollinators’ activity

A research article recently published in the British Ecological Society’s Functional Ecology journal, examines how the quantity of floral resources affects pollinator activity and how this relates to the structure and robustness of pollination networks. The paper titled “Patterns of pollination inte (...)

Partners from 25 institutions across Europe and China join forces to reverse wild pollinator decline

Between 7 - 9 September 2021, leading experts in the field of wild pollinators and biodiversity from 25 institutions across 14 European countries and China gathered for the official kick-off of the Horizon 2020 research and innovation project Safeguard. Due to present COVID-19 restrictions, the even (...)