Dear

I apologise in advance for sending you this unsolicited Insignia-EU newsletter. Because your email address is on our list of interested persons and parties for the original INSIGNIA project, I am taking the liberty of informing you about our new newsletter.

After the Insignia study 2018-2021 was completed successfully, the new, European Union funded INSIGNIA study, started in December 2021. This is called the INSIGNIA-EU study, as it now covers all 27 European countries. It will be a beekeeper citizen scientist study, covering over 350 apiaries.

Whereas in the first INSIGNIA study we focussed on the bio-monitoring with honey bee colonies of pesticides in the environment and pollen diversity, INSIGNIA-EU  has a much broader scope, covering not only pesticides, but also heavy metals, microplastics, and air pollutants including particulate matter, PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and pollen diversity.

The challenge of using the honey bee colony as a biomonitoring tool is to find the optimal combinations of sampling matrix and the target compounds, whilst acting as non-invasively as possible. In 2022 we are focussing on this quest for the optimal combination, in which we test the bee matrices: in-hive bees, wax, honey, propolis, and pollen, together with in-hive passive samplers, the APIStrip which we developed in the first INSIGNIA study, and the newly developed APITrap for microplastics.

The progress in these studies, which in 2022 are being tested in Denmark, Austria and Greece will be reported on our website and our social media channels. With this newsletter, you are in the front row seat of this exciting exercise now and over the next two years.

If you do not wish to continue to receive the INSIGNIA-EU newsletters, please tick the un-subscribe box below. 

Jozef van der Steen,

Coordinator INSIGNIA-EU