Insect Pollinators Initiative

Purpose

There is evidence that insect pollinators are currently declining in number, and are under serious threat from rapid changes in the environment, for example: from emerging diseases, habitat loss, intensive agriculture and climate change. In Europe, both managed and wild insects contribute significantly to the pollination of a large variety of crops and wild plants. We need an evidence base to help conserve and manage these pollinators, improve husbandry of managed species and insure against the potential catastrophic loss of the ecosystem services insect pollinators provide.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council(BBSRC); the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra); the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); the Scottish government and the Wellcome Trust will fund research to understand better the threats to insect pollinators and to develop appropriate mitigation strategies. They have committed up to £10m over five years to support multidisciplinary research in this area.

The new initiative will support research aimed at understanding the interactions between the biological, social and environmental factors affecting the viability of managed and wild insect pollinators. Details of the nature and scope of the call for proposals will be given at a town meeting (see 'Application process'), but systems-based approaches will be important, along with state-of-the-art technologies and methods.

Eligibility

Expressions of interest will be accepted only from eligible individuals in the following classes of eligible UK and Republic of Ireland institutions:

• Higher education institutions (HEIs)
• Research Council institutes
• RCUK-approved Independent Research Organisations
• Government Research Establishments
• Scottish Government Main Research Providers

Overseas research institutions are eligible to participate in and to receive funding from the initiative as collaborative partners, but only as coapplicants on proposals led by an eligible UK institution. Expressions of interest will not be accepted directly from overseas institutions.

To be eligible to submit an expression of interest, an individual applicant must be resident in the UK and hold a position that is resourced from the central funds of an eligible institution. The applicant's position should be at lecturer level or above in a HEI, or its equivalent in other institutions. Research assistants, technicians or other researchers employed on short-term projects or Research Council grants are not eligible to apply.

Application process

Application will be by a two-stage process. A call for expressions of interest [Word 80KB] has been issued. Short-listed applicants will subsequently be invited to submit full proposals.

For submissions on Je-S, an outline proposal form will be available from 7 August 2009.

The funders particularly encourage proposals from multidisciplinary research groupings with the best possible expertise to address pollinator decline. This may involve collaborations between established pollinator researchers and researchers working in other relevant areas, e.g. virology, invertebrate disease transmission, epidemiology, modelling. Collaborations involving beekeepers are also welcome.

Deadlines

The timetable for the initiative is expected to be as follows:

• 3 July 2009: Launch of call for expressions of interest
• 23 September 2009: Closing date for expressions of interest
• Mid-October 2009: Assessment of expressions of interest
• 19 October 2009: Invitation of full proposals
• 13 January 2010: Closing date for full proposals
• 18-19 May 2010: Assessment of full proposals
• End June 2010: Notification of funding decisions

Contacts

The administration of the initiative is being led by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) on behalf of all of the funding partners.

Enquiries should be directed to:
Debbie Harding
T 01793 414653
E insect.pollinators@bbsrc.ac.uk