2023 Bee Award - Call for applications by 8 September 2023
Are you involved in any innovative initiatives aimed at protecting bees or other pollinators?
The European Bee Award is launching the call for applications for 2023! The European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) and the European Agricultural Machinery Industry Association (CEMA) invite you to submit your project by Friday, September 8, 2023.
Since 2014, the Bee Award is committed to find common solutions for the benefit of biodiversity by rewarding projects protecting pollinators.
There are three awards: Land Management practices (€ 4,000 prize), Innovative technological solutions (€ 4,000 prize) and Special Mention of the Jury (diploma of recognition)
Who can apply?
The European Bee Award is open to everyone*.
We reward farmers, landowners, research institutes, academia, and private and public organisations who develop outstanding and innovative projects aiming to protect bees or other pollinators and helping to preserve biodiversity.
Former applicants are very welcome to re-apply!
*Check the terms and conditions in the application form
FOREWORD BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE JURY
“Bees and other pollinating insects make a critical contribution to crop production and pollination of wild plants. Yet there is concern about declines in these important species across Europe and elsewhere. With sponsorship from CEMA, the European Landowners’ Organization announces the “European Bee Award”, a prize for a new intervention that promotes the protection of pollinators in the farm environment.
The two prizes will be awarded to a farmer, landowner, research institute, private or public organisation, who possibly in partnership, has developed and implemented an innovative practice that helps to reduce the impact of farming operations on bees and other pollinators. The type of interventions that might be considered include managing part of the farm in ways that benefit pollinators, improving the availability of flowers and other resources that pollinators require and changes to agronomic practices or the use of farm
machinery that are pollinator friendly. The independent jury will take a broad view of possible interventions and welcomes novel and innovative ideas. It will consider practices that benefit not only managed honeybee populations but also wild bees and other pollinators. Interventions that measurably improve pollinator wellbeing on all farm types will be considered (for example farms producing any type of food, and both organic and conventional farming systems).
In choosing the winners of the prize, the jury will take into account how much difference the intervention will make, how novel it is, and its scalability – the likelihood that it will be accepted by farmers and implemented widely in Europe. The jury will look for evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention, how practical and compatible it is, and will give extra weight to ideas that also benefit non-pollinator biodiversity or that improve the services that pollinators provide for agriculture.
A Jury special mention has been included since 2017 to recognise smaller-scale or particularly novel projects.”
Dr Michael Garratt
President of the JuryABOUT THE EUROPEAN BEE AWARD
About Bee Award
The European Bee Award was launched in 2014 by the European Landowners’ Organization (www.elo.org) and CEMA, the European Agricultural Machinery Association (www.cema-agri.org) with the aim of celebrating novel innovations that benefit bees, pollinators and biodiversity more generally.
Who can participate? The European Bee Award rewards farmers, landowners, research institutes, academia and private or public organisations who develop outstanding and innovative projects aiming to protect bees or other pollinators and helping to preserve biodiversity in Europe.
In 2023, the European Bee Award will reward projects with two main focuses: “Land management practices” and “Application of innovative technological solutions”, each
with a prize of 4,000 €. The award also comes with a diploma of recognition and the winning project will be promoted through ELO and CEMA communication channels:
- Category 1: Land management practices to protect and enhance pollinators in the farmed environment. The prize will reward developments in farming practices that help create the right living conditions for bees and other pollinators, encouraging their presence in cropped areas while enriching biodiversity in the farmedenvironment.
- Category 2: Application of innovative technological solutions to reduce farming operations’ impact on pollinators. A special focus will be placed this year on projects that new technologies and new applications of technologies to allow bees and other pollinators to be better protected from the impact of farming operations (for example, application of crop protection products or during harvesting).
- In addition to the above categories, a “Jury special mention” will be awarded by diploma of recognition for an excellent small-scale or novel project, farm or initiative.
An independent jury chaired by Dr Michael Garratt (University of Reading) and including international experts, members of the European Institutions and NGOs will be in charge of assessing which practices and innovative ideas in agriculture most contribute to the maintenance of good pollinator communities in Europe’s farmed landscape.
More information on dedicated Website - contact the award coordinator Anne-Sophie Mulier if you have any questions.
