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 this task will provide a working space where ideas can be collected in a more structured manner, and responsible people can be assigned.
Data management: this workshop outlined the best practises to manage data and discussed data publishing and sharing policies within Safeguard. As a next step, a Data Management Plan will be submitted at the end of February, which will include metadata structure and a data sharing policy. The plan will be developed collaboratively with all project partners.
Integrated assessment: participants to this session delivered a comprehensive summary of what is expected from the conceptualisation of the Integrated Assessment Framework (IAF). Two working groups exchanged ideas on how to conceptualise the IAF, identifying the main challenge to summarise and reduce the complexity of this framework. As a next step, a survey on tools, methods and models to characterise different linkages within this framework will be launched to collect people’s input.
Study site selection and field protocols: this workshop introduced the general framework and study design: a total of 13 study regions has been selected (Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) and a major update of the site selection status was provided. A summary presentation was given, where open points were discussed, and updated field protocols will be circulated. As a next step, experts from this working group aim to finalise the site selection as soon as possible. Moreover, the organisation of a training workshop for PhD students and other experts to standardise methods has been discussed.
Pollinator movement and planned pollination: this session provided an overview of task 2.5 (Analyse the impact of landscape structure on pollinator movement and plant reproduction and test new recording technologies), where different pathways of involvement were explored and useful feedback was received. Another point of discussion was the advantage of combined protocols. As a next step, a fieldwork diagram will be made available for all partners who do field work.
Nitrogen deposition: this workshop offered a free-form discussion about which countries are going to be interested in the nitrogen deposition maps. So far, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany have been identified as such. There is already a monitoring scheme operated out of Paris focussing on the vegetation bioindicators of nitrogen loading of the biosystem. The team in charge of this task will review what kind of information they have which might be useful to Safeguard.
Effects of implementing multiple interventions: this workshop was mainly targeted towards the identification of suitable datasets of pollinator abundance and diversity in multiple types of interventions. Two such datasets were identified for Italy, two from Switzerland and one from the UK (as well as two potentially suitable datasets from Sweden). The data will be used to develop and test new statistical analytical models to determine unbiased effects of individual interventions, as well as synergies and trade-offs with effects of other interventions and the spatial scales at which these occur.
Policy workshop: this session delivered useful and engaging discussions, resulting in many actions for project partner IEEP. One immediate action is to introduce a series of smaller one-to-one and group discussions with work package leaders to progress policy objectives and targets. A Policy Roadmap Platform has been made available on the internal part of the project website. Strategies to engage and collaborate with ongoing H2020 projects (B-GOOD, PoshBee) were also presented and discussed.
Stakeholder mapping: this short session provided a background to the task & mapping exercise, as well as a demo of the online platform. The stakeholder mapping is at its starting point - once organisations are mapped, key contacts will be identified, contacted and invited to cooperate. Moving forward, work package leads will send a list of individuals who will be invited to the mapping exercise. The mapping platform will be released at the start of February, together with a video tutorial. The exercise will be open for several weeks.
Photo: Safeguard stakeholder mapping