Giving Beekeeping Guidance by cOmputatiOnal-assisted Decision making

B-GOOD’s final newsletter has just been released, offering a closer look at what B-GOOD achieved in its final year and the legacy it leaves behind. Photo: B-GOOD final newsletter The B-GOOD closing conference marked the culmination of four and a half years of dedicated research, extensive field studies, innovative technologies development, and knowledge exchange among project partners, beekeepers, external experts and other stakeholders.  Now, we are pleased to present...

B-GOOD was recently represented at the XII European Congress of Entomology (ECE 2023), a major European entomological meeting held in Heraklion, Crete, from 16-20 October 2023. The event brought together scientists from around the world to exchange knowledge, expertise and perspectives. This year, nearly 1000 entomologists from Europe and beyond attended, alongside representatives from Horizon 2020 projects B-GOOD, Safeguard and PoshBee, as well as the newly funded Horizon Europe projects...

The communication of scientific information is an integral part of any research project and posters significantly simplify this task. Their visual impact promotes memorability, making complex concepts more digestible and they demonstrate real-world applications more easily. This was once again proved by several B-GOOD project partners who have prepared concise posters on different aspects of the project. After presenting them during B-GOOD’s closing conference and the 19th COLOSS...

B-GOOD project partner Prof Wim Verbeke (Ghent University) recently shared valuable insights from the B-GOOD project at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (CIHEAM/MAICh). His seminar Exploring the Socio-economics of Beekeeping in Europe on 12 October 2023 brought together 1st and 2nd-year students alongside beekeepers to learn more and connect. Photo: Prof Wim Verbeke at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania The seminar shed light on the myriad...

Over the past four and a half years, the B-GOOD project has given us the opportunity to develop a new perspective on the beekeeping sector in Europe. To provide a concise overview of our main results, we published a special project Legacy booklet dedicated to B-GOOD’s main achievements and key research. The first part summarises the key findings of each work package, thus offering a glimpse into what B-GOOD has achieved throughout the project’s duration. Photo: B-GOOD Legacy...

The 19th COLOSS Conference 2023 took place on 3-4 October 2023 in Bled, Slovenia. Besides the Annual General Assembly Meeting, the event featured Core Project & Task Force State-of-the-Art and Update presentations, concurrent discussions on various topics and a poster session. All participants who were unable to attend in person were distributed Zoom links to take part virtually. Photo: Alexis Beaurepaire's B-GOOD stand for the COLOSS poster session B-GOOD demonstrated a...

A new B-GOOD video offers highlights from the B-GOOD closing conference, held in Bled, Slovenia earlier in October.  The video presents a short overview of the conference, including snippets from the presentations held that day, the panel discussion, and insightful moments from the information market stands and posters showcasing the work and outputs of project partners. Interested in learning more? Visit our new YouTube playlist to watch all the presentations and the panel...

B-GOOD’s website and YouTube channel are now filled with new content from the recent closing conference of the project. Held in Bled, Slovenia, this October, the conference brought together partners, researchers, and enthusiasts to showcase the outcomes and technologies developed during the project like the open research platform – BEEP, and the TaqMan assay. (All project results are introduced in the B-GOOD legacy booklet, available for download here.) For those interested in...

The EU Horizon 2020 project B-GOOD concluded with a closing conference held in Bled, Slovenia, this October. This marked the culmination of four and a half years of dedicated research, extensive field studies, the development of innovative technologies, and the exchange of knowledge among project partners. The journey began with a kick-off Meeting in Ghent, Belgium in July 2019 and concluded with this event on the 2nd of October, 2023, just before the COLOSS congress on the 3rd and 4th of...

The 48th edition of the Apimondia International Apicultural Congress took place from 4-8 September 2023 in Santiago, Chile. As the biggest beekeeping event in the world, it brought together beekeepers, scientists, honey traders, development workers, technicians, and legislators to listen, discuss, and learn from each other.  Under the slogan "APIMONDIA Chile 2023 - Sustainable Beekeeping, from the south of the world" the event offered a rich scientific program, an ApiExpo full...

The B-GOOD final beekeepers event was held on the 9th of September 2023, both in person at the picturesque Fletcher Hotel-Restaurant De Buunderkamp in Wolfheze, the Netherlands, and virtually, bringing together a diverse group of approximately 20 attendees, consisting of beekeepers and project partners. One independent beekeeper and nine beekeepers from Tier 2 and Tier 3 participated in the event in person. Furthermore, there were additional participants who joined the meeting remotely,...

This press release was originally published by EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo. The project will introduce the results and technologies developed during the project, gathering the consortium members and external advisors one last time. The EU Horizon 2020 project B-GOOD, aiming at improving honey bee health and beekeeping sustainability, invites participants to the project’s closing conference in Bled, Slovenia this October. The upcoming scientific event will feature oral...

On July 26th, 2023 B-GOOD coordinator Prof. Dr. Dirk de Graaf from Ghent University, Belgium, gave a lecture about marker-assisted selection in beekeeping at the polli.NET seminar, taking place at the Auditorium of Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal. The event was also streamed online for those who did not have the opportunity to attend in person.   Poster of the polli.NET event   The lecture entitled "Paving the way to marker-assisted...

This press release was originally published by EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo. B-GOOD organises a new Special Issue focusing on solutions to enhance sustainable beekeeping and improve bee management. The "Healthy and Sustainable Beekeeping" Special Issue in the open-access journal by MDPI Insects aims to bring together research articles and reviews of various disciplines related to the beekeeping of Apis spp. (including Apis mellifera and any of the Asian honey...

The European Research Executive Agency (REA), Unit B.3 "Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Environment", has recently released a detailed report highlighting opportunities and knowledge gaps in pollinator research and innovation in the European Union. The report, titled ‘Opportunities and knowledge gaps for EU Research and Innovation on pollinators’, is the outcome of a workshop organised by REA on October 10, 2022, which aimed to promote dialogue, identify research and...

On June 28th, 2023 the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NMNHS) in Sofia inaugurated its latest temporary exhibition titled 'The pollinators we can't live without,' which sheds light on the crucial role of pollinators, the challenges they confront, and the necessary measures for their preservation. The exhibition was organised in collaboration with B-GOOD, along with two prominent projects, PoshBee and Safeguard, which presented their...

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 National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NMNHS) focuses on the essence and importance of pollinators. The attendees of the...

BEEP has now become a customisable platform that can be applied for research of honeybee colonies, bumblebees, wild honeybee colonies, etc. The BEEP platform is an 'open research' platform, which allows users to obtain high-quality data and monitor bee colonies in a harmonised and standardised way. To make this harmonisation in data collection possible, the BEEP foundation has compiled a standardised data model, based on about 30 sources.  Image: Overview of the main BEEP...

The B-GOOD socio-economics research team from Ghent University (BE), Aarhus University (DK) and University of Coimbra (PT) has published their findings on European beekeeping facing climate change through the lens of stakeholders and beekeepers. This study, published in the renowned scientific journal Science of the Total Environment, is the first to show how climate change is experienced in the European beekeeping sector and forces beekeepers to change their beekeeping management practices....

A recent study published in the Peer Community Journal and titled "Brood thermoregulation effectiveness is positively linked to the amount of brood but not to the number of bees in honeybee colonies" sheds light on the factors influencing the effectiveness of brood thermoregulation in honeybee colonies. The findings provide valuable insights into the role of colony size and meteorological conditions in maintaining optimal brood temperatures. By using methods of experimental setup,...