Two INSIGNIAS just finished the very last packing of the toolboxes. They are tired, but very happy. Have a listen!
First meeting with all the 27 National Coordinators
And exiting workshop took place the last day (13th-14th February 2023) in Wageningen. Here we meet for the first time all our national coordinators from all EU countries. We did learn each other to know, we did practice, we did discus and we did socialize. Listen to our podcast.
INSIGNIA presenting themselves for EU
INSIGNIA-EU meets with European Commission in Brussels. Time for a short podcast on our meeting and what was going in Brussels.
Sampling dates public
All the sampling dates for the INSIGNIA project is now public. This is important for the Citizens Scientist as well as the coordinators, since all people want to plane their summer and especially in regard to beekeeping activities. For all sampling windows the Citizens Scientist need to pick one of the 4 days available, where they can do sampling. So, for sampling round 1, you can choose to make your sampling on one of the days 4th or 5th or 6th or 7th of May. We also ask our Citizens Scientist to cooperate with neighbor beekeepers, in the case our Citizens Scientist themselves are not able to sample in one of the sampling rounds. For INSIGNIA it is important to have a full as possibly sampling.
Curiosity – is the main driver
From all the consortium we wish happy birthday to Sjef van der Steen, Netherlands on his 71 years birthday.
Sjef is the coordinator of the INSIGNIA project. Others would say: Why not just play golf? Sjef would reply: Why play golf, if you can run such an exciting project as INSIGNIA!
Happy birthday – 71 is just a number as long as you have curiosity on life.
INSIGNIA-EU meets with European Commission in Brussels…
A successful meeting has been held at the European Commission DG Environment, funders of INSIGNIA-EU, in Brussels, Belgium, attended by consortium members from 11 different countries, together with representatives of other European Commission bodies and the European Parliament. The results of the pilot studies carried out in three European countries during 2022, together with other preliminary investigations, were reported. These studies compared a range of different matrices to sample a wide range of different environmental pollutants. The most effective combination of matrices which have now been selected for implementation, together comprise an integrated, non-destructive sampling regime, which will in 2023 be carried out by citizen scientist beekeepers in their bee hives in all 27 EU countries throughout the season. In a few weeks a practical meeting will be held in Wageningen, Netherlands attended by the INSIGNIA-EU National Coordinators of each country to receive training in the sampling techniques to be used by their citizen scientists.
Santa is bringing APIStrips for Christmas
The preparation of the new APIStrips has officially begun at the University of Almería and the UAL team is working hard to have them ready on time. Next year, close to 6000 APIStrips will be needed in the monitoring, which means a lot of time and effort. But the first 400 are now ready! They are safely stored and waiting to be shipped to all national coordinators, who will distribute them to the citizen scientists prior to the first sampling dates. Continue reading “Santa is bringing APIStrips for Christmas”
Congratulations to Maria Murcia – a PhD thesis from within INSIGNIA
It is with great pride that we congratulate Maria and the Almeria team for Marias’s successful defense of her thesis on the subject: “Environmental monitoring of pesticides using passive sampling in honeybee hives”, work carried out during the INSIGNIA and INSIGNIA-EU projects Continue reading “Congratulations to Maria Murcia – a PhD thesis from within INSIGNIA”
Two INSIGNIA’S IN A TALK ON STONES BAR
An INSIGNIA video podcast at the Stones bar in Nea Moudania. A bit deeper talk on the results of our 3 days meeting on next year’s sampling. Flemming Vejsnæs (bad sound – since his microphone did not work) and Sjef van der Steen have a chat on the results and conclusions on the meeting.
Thanks for the hospitality!
