Happy New Year from COLOSS! (with important updates)

Dear COLOSS members

On behalf of our EC, I herewith wish all of you a healthy, happy and productive New Year 2021!

We hope that you are all doing fine in these difficult pandemic times and that the New Year will improve the situation for all of us.

Despite the obvious issues, COLOSS did well in 2020 and we would like to thank all of you for active participation. To start the New Year adequately, we have some exciting developments due to our new Ricola grant, which we would like to share with you:

1. By taking advantage of our new grant and web-based solutions, we will further enhance our networking at a global scale, e.g. all of you will be able to actively participate at our next online General Assembly (GA), thereby contributing to a true bottom-up COLOSS approach. Please stay tuned on our website and newsletter for announcements and actively participate on our COLOSS Facebook and Instagram accounts to enhance our global collaboration.
2. We will grant four prestigious COLOSS awards to outstanding early stage researchers / veterinarians or extension workers (5’000.- CHF each). Please find guidelines at the 1.02.2021 at coloss.org and submit your applications before 1^st of March.
3. Based on prior experience, we will initiate more global surveys and experiments. Please consult Core Projects and Task Forces within your specific area of interest.
4. BEEBOOK: several chapters may require updates and novel chapters might be useful. Please consult the lead authors and/or Core Project Chairs if you wish to contribute here.
5. Task Forces: there will be funding available for new Task Forces. If you are willing to initiate a new TF, please find guidelines at coloss.org at the 1.02.2021 and submit your applications before 1^st of September.

COLOSS will continue to be the largest scientific honey bee association globally, but our output and impact depend on active participation from all of you. Let’s make it happen!

I am personally looking forward seeing you at our next GA at the latest.

All of you stay safe and healthy.

Kind regards

Peter Neumann