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, kicking off with a workshop on the synthesis of existing data. The project will produce different data papers - on spatial records of bees and syrphid flies, as well as on their traits. The day concluded with a policy-oriented session, discussing potential policy brief topics that could be developed in the last year of Safeguard. Furthermore, policy-relevant forthcoming events were also outlined and the participation of Safeguard in some of them was strategised.
Day two began with words of welcome from the local host (Denis Michez, UMONS), the project coordinator (Ingolf SteffanDewenter, UWUE) as well as the EC project officer for Safeguard (Christophe Coudun, REA), followed by a 10-minute overview of the progress in all work packages over the last year. You can find some of the highlights of each work package here.
The day continued with smaller working groups, where the different work packages had the opportunity to connect and plan their work for the final phase of the project.
After a comprehensive overview of the EU pollinator projects landscape, the meeting concluded with a workshop summary of all work packages in front of the plenary group, as well as some thoughts on the final Safeguard stakeholder conference, which is aimed to take place in Brussels in early 2025!