Four projects for pollinator protection presented at a thematic EFSA-KIC meeting

Recently, project coordinator Prof. Christopher John Topping introduced the PollinERA project at an online meeting hosted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), dedicated to advancing environmental risk assessment (ERA) to better protect pollinators. The meeting brought together nearly 140 participants, including policymakers and researchers.

The meeting, organised by EFSA’s Knowledge & Innovation Community (KIC) on ERA, featured insights from the PollinEat, PollinERA, ProPollSoil, and WildPosh projects. Their shared aim is to contribute to advancing ERA for pollinators. 

Christopher Topping’s PollinERA presentation focused on pollinator exposure and sensitivity to pesticides, predictive toxicology and in silico approaches, pesticide and pollinator monitoring in the environment, and last but not least, exploring the population-level and systems-based risk assessment. 

PollinERA partner Johan Axelman also took an active part in the event, holding a presentation on the topic ‘Beyond safe & unsafe: Rewiring PPP ERA through systems thinking’.

Three other EU projects introduced goals and findings at the meeting. PollinEat estimates the food consumption in bees and the levels of oral exposure to pesticides. ProPollSoil’s ultimate goal is to protect and restore soils and their associated soil-dependent pollinators. WildPosh is working on improving the evaluation of the risk to wild pollinators and providing a Pan-European assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of chemical stressors on the health of wild pollinators.

About EFSA:

EFSA is an agency of the European Union set up in 2002 to serve as an impartial source of scientific advice to risk managers and to communicate risks associated with the food chain. They cooperate with interested parties to promote the coherence of EU scientific advice and provide the scientific basis for laws and regulations to protect European consumers from food-related risks – from farm to fork.