The Executive Committee of COLOSS are pleased to announce that they have signed an agreement with the Ricola Foundation, Science and Nature, for substantial additional funding for an initial three year period, with a clear perspective for sustainable support.
This additional funding will be used in three main areas to improve the effectiveness of the COLOSS association: 1. To enable improvement of organisation and communication through outsourcing of routine administrative tasks to enable the Executive Committee to concentrate on scientific matters, to improve global outreach via regional COLOSS meetings and enhanced web activities; 2. To provide annual awards for outstanding members to enable them to take part in COLOSS activities such as conferences, workshops or other activities. Members from developing countries and early stage researchers will be the focus of these awards, and an appropriate gender balance will be ensured; and 3. Support for COLOSS Core Projects and Task Forces to facilitate the organisation of workshops, travel of invited speakers and open access fees for publications.
Since its original foundation in 2008, COLOSS has significantly improved our understanding of the causes of honey bee colony losses, through the organisation of conferences, workshops and short term scientific missions, and the coordination of research efforts. The collection of standardised data on the losses experienced by beekeepers, and a coordinated experiment studying the influence of genotype and environment on the survival of honey bee populations have been particular highlights. COLOSS has published the first three volumes of the BEEBOOK, which for the first time gives bee scientists and beekeepers some 2,000 standardised research protocols written by 350 authors from 35 countries, enabling the results of research to be comparable across the world.
Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ricola Foundation, Dr Lukas Richterich said: “We at ‘Ricola Foundation’ love honey bees, they play a crucial role in biodiversity. We proudly support science to protect their health. Thank you COLOSS…”
President of COLOSS, Prof. Peter Neumann said: “This additional funding will enable COLOSS to consolidate its activities and to enhance our global outreach to fulfil our role in maintaining the wellbeing of honey bees worldwide”.
