PollinERA at the IOBC-WPRS WG workshop “Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms”

In March 2026, PollinERA research was presented at the workshop “A NEW CHAPTER: Pesticides, Beneficials, and the Path Forward”, held by The International Organisation for Biological Control (IOBC). The workshop aimed to bring together experts to assess the current status of the Working Group “Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms,” define future research directions and foster collaboration.

One of the three keynote presentations was delivered by Prof. Ryszard Laskowski from Jagiellonian University and focused on the lab-to-landscape approach, based primarily on the PollinERA project. His presentation “From lab to landscape: Aligning non-target ecotoxicology with IOBC-WPRS Strategic Goals 2026–2028” emphasised the importance of moving away from risk assessment based of laboratory assays on a few ‘representative’ species towards assessment for entire communities of non-target organisms in the context of landscape structure. 

He comparеd the current traditional approach and the proposed shift to landscape population modelling. He brought special attention to Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR), Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSD) and ALMaSS (Animal, Landscape and Man Simulation System) – tools that won’t make risk assessment more complicated. but more relevant. In the end, he highlighted that ‘if our models don't reflect the fields where these chemicals are actually used, then our 'safety' is just an illusion’ and that it is time to bring ecological realism into legal regulations.