Researchers from AGRI4POL met in Dijon for a two-day workshop hosted by the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), with participants representing Wageningen University & Research (WUR), the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (Agroscope), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), University of Padua (UNIPD), University of Reading (UREAD), the University of Freiburg (UFR), and the Association Paisatges Vius – Living Landscapes (LL).
The meeting focused on field protocol development for Work Package 3 (Management options to enhance pollinator benefits on farms) and Work Package 4 (Multifunctional ecological infrastructure (EI) for pollinators and co-benefits from field to landscape scales). The workshop opened with presentations from project coordinator Adam Vanbergen (INRAE) and David Kleijn (WU), these introductory sessions laid the foundation for the two-day workshop, focusing on the specific tasks and methodologies to be used in upcoming AGRI4POL research.
AGRI4POL field protocol development workshop.
Dijon, France
To place AGRI4POL’s work in the wider European context, the group heard from Dave Bohan (INRAE), who presented the Horizon Europe Climate Mission project TRANSFORM, and Juliette Young (INRAE), who shared insights from the ANR Transform project.
Throughout the workshop, researchers worked intensively in task-specific groups. Agroscope, Wageningen University, and the University of Padua led sessions on WP3 Tasks 3.1a, 3.1b, and 3.2. For WP4, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the University of Reading facilitated the alignment of methodologies across Tasks 4.1 and 4.2.
AGRI4POL field protocol development workshop.
Dijon, France
The workshop closed with a field visit to grassland sites and agricultural landscapes in Dijon. The visit offered participants a direct look at local study sites, adding on-the-ground context to the workshop discussions.
The event also reinforced AGRI4POL’s commitment to facilitating synergies with relevant projects, in this case, with the Horizon 2020 project SHOWCASE (SHOWCASing synergies between agriculture, biodiversity and Ecosystem services). SHOWCASE and AGRI4POL share a commitment to more sustainable farming through helping farmers integrate biodiversity or building pollinator-friendly management approaches. The common consortium members the two projects share are Wageningen University & Research, University of Reading, the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, the Spanish National Research Council, and Pensoft Publishers. This shared foundation creates natural bridges for collaboration.
Follow SHOWCASE’s website and social media to gain insight into the collaboration from their point of view.
