10/11/2009: Insect Pollinators Initiative: update

On 3 July 2009, a consortium of funders launched a call for proposals for an initiative to promote innovative research aimed at understanding and mitigating the biological and environmental factors that adversely effect both managed and wild insect pollinators. A total of 63 EoIs had been received, many of which outlined proposals for multidisciplinary projects, often based on collaborations between two or more institutions. Proposed studies of honeybees, bumble bees or other insect pollinators covered a very wide range of topics, which, collectively, addressed to varying degrees all of the five themes highlighted in the call. The total cost of the research proposed in the EoIs was around £52M; funding available for the IPI is up to £10M. Under the auspices of the Living With Environmental Change Partnership, the Insect Pollinators Initiative (IPI) is being funded jointly by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Scottish Government and the Wellcome Trust. Expressions of interest (EoIs) submitted in response to the call for proposals were considered on 14 October 2009 by an independent scientific panel with the following membership:

Professor Chris Pollock CBE        

formerly Director, Institute of Grassland Chairman) and Environmental Research, Aberystwyth; Council member, BBSRC

Professor Sue Hartley

Department of Biology and Environmental Science, University of Sussex

Sir Peter Lachmann FRS

Emeritus Professor, University of Cambridge

Professor Peter Neumann

Swiss Bee Research Centre, Bern

Professor Mark Tatchell

Consultant in agricultural, horticultural and biological sciences; honorary professor, University of Warwick

Dr Alan Teale

Formerly University of Stirling; president, Scottish Beekeepers’ Association

On the advice of the assessment panel, the principal investigators of 33 of the proposed projects have been invited to submit full applications by 7 January 2010. Short-listed EoIs were considered by the panel to provide a basis for the development of proposals for high-quality research with potential to contribute to the understanding and mitigation of declines in pollinator abundance or diversity. Unsuccessful EoIs were judged to be outside the scope of the IPI, of insufficient scientific merit, or unlikely to make a significant contribution to addressing pollinator declines. A few proposals, although innovative and of high scientific merit, lacked immediate relevance to the aims of the Initiative, and might have been more appropriately submitted to the Research Councils’ responsive-mode funding schemes.

Full applications will be subject to peer review by expert referees, whose reports, together with applicants’ responses to the referees’ comments, will inform their consideration by an expanded assessment panel at a meeting in May 2010.  Alongside the panel’s advice on the merits of individual applications, funding decisions will also have regard to the overall scope and balance of the portfolio of projects to be supported, with a view to ensuring an appropriate spread of activity across the themes of the Initiative. Funding will be provided to successful applicants through research grants awarded to their institutions by BBSRC on behalf of all of the funding partners.

A launch event to announce the outcome of the funding stage of the IPI is planned for July 2010. It is hoped that this event will facilitate the start of ongoing engagement between researchers and other stakeholders in the Initiative, building on contacts established at a meeting held on 3 September 2009 between the funders and representatives of a range of organisations with interests in beekeeping, wildlife conservation, agriculture and horticulture.  Grant-holders will be expected to interact with relevant organisations by providing articles for publication in magazines and newsletters, participation in meetings etc. In due course, there will be an “end-of-programme” event, aimed at a wide audience, to disseminate the findings of completed projects.