West Norfolk and King's Lynn
WNKLBA is lead association in the £100,000 Bee Research project at Sheffield University
Congratulations to every beekeeper involved : our application to BBSRC has been successful.
We have been given £80,000+ which, when added to our contribution, allows the £100,000 PhD project to start.
This is a major step forward and has come about by much interaction between associations, researchers, funders, NBU, BBKA and BFA. A great deal of effort has gone into getting everyone ‘on board' as you will read below.
What happens next is that the Studentship is advertised by Sheffield University and when a suitable candidate has been appointed, research begins.
This newsletter is going to every association in Eastern Region. Although the vast majority of associations are participating, several have yet to join – we want to provide the opportunity for doing so. This is in part to reflect the desire for inclusiveness that we have and also the need for some more funds !
We know that the positive and encouraging comments we have received from so many involved in beekeeping, including BBKA and BBSRC have added considerable credibility to the project and will also allay concerns too.
If you are thinking of joining, we will be pleased to come along and explain the project in detail.
We knew the science had been approved about a month ago. The ‘problem' was the beekeepers. When you get a request for Articles of Incorporation and 5 years Accounts you know it's going to be a long haul, but having the breath of 2500+ beekeepers down your neck concentrates the mind wonderfully.
The numbers of beekeepers involved adds weight to our case and coupled with the fact that some are bee farmers lends credibility to our bid as ‘industry partners'. Remember that BBSRC are looking to support a student's career so we had to downplay the hobby aspects at this point.
Whilst the 2500+ beekeepers involved is impressive having a single point of contact to take responsibility for the industry side is important to funders.
We had to give financial commitments to cover the £16,800 needed even though at that time we only had commitments from associations for £9,500. And just to add a smidgeon of tension, an admin problem led to BBSRC approval apparently being revoked the day after it was given.
Fund raising has not ceased since we put in the application. Several associations have had particularly good beginners courses and have felt able to contribute more.
Individual beekeepers have taken it upon themselves to chivvy local sources and we have a commitment from Morley Agricultural Foundation for an ex-gratia payment…. but we still need more to be certain of fulfilling our commitments
Bedfordshire have just short of 100 beginners and have decided to commit an extra £500 this year. The press release for E.A.R.S. included a paragraph from Bedfordshire encouraging others areas to try similar schemes to ours.
Cambridgeshire have similarly committed an extra £500 this year – again ‘only' 89 beginners !
Suffolk associations have decided that contributions to research collected during 2008 should go to E.A.R.S.
Payments to the project will be made through a new bank account set up for the purpose.
Cheques should be made out to “WNKLBA-EARS” and sent to David Bancalari, Park Farm Barn, Shortthorn Road, Stratton Strawless, Norfolk NR10 5NX.
Current plans are to have the first cash call in April this year, so if you would alert your Treasurer that would be appreciated.
Cambridgeshire has written “The Cambridgeshire BKA are delighted that at last we are able to assist in some positive action being taken towards bee research.
Our application form for about 10 years has had a request to donate money to the BBKA Research fund. The suggested amount was £1.50, the price of a jar of honey at the time. Many of our members contributed and over the years after adding the gift aid element, we have sent several thousand pounds to the BBKA. To the best of our knowledge this money has never been put towards research, but has been retained in the BBKA Research fund. With the potential of being able to support E.A.R.S. we changed our form this year to have the donation element directed to bee research rather than specifically to the BBKA Research Fund. We also changed the suggested amount to £3.00 to bring it closer to the cost of a jar of honey now”.
Our members have responded very generously with many members contributing more than the suggested amount. The overall donation has more than doubled and we have comfortably raised our commitment to E.A.R.S. We will retain the excess as a separately identified reserve until further specific research projects are identified, either via E.A.R.S. or the BBKA.
If our experience is anything to go by Beekeepers are very keen to contribute towards research, especially where the specific project can be identified. It is even more positive when their money can be used as seed-corn to generate a 5 fold increase in spending power!
Suffolk BKA …Suffolk beekeepers have agreed to give £300 0f the 2008 voluntary contributions for research to the EARS project. We have been disappointed in the past at the BBKA's lack response to our requests as to where the BBKA Research Fund is spent.
Hopefully we will change the ‘BBKA Research Fund' element of our subscription form to ‘Bee Research' next year and in this way I am sure we can increase this donation if our members can see where their money is going and see updates on the chosen field of research. This is an exciting project and I am sure given the right publicity will capture our members' attention.
The Eastern Forum has come a long way from somebody asking Dr Giles Budge of National Bee Unit at the 2008 Forum meeting ‘we have £500 where can we usefully spend it?'
This project has cemented the foundations of this annual gathering of beekeepers first started I believe by RBI John Blakesley and now carried on by RBI Andy Wattam.
Peterborough and District write “After the Bee Forum we discussed at committee and jumped at the chance of direct involvement in research.
We put details in our newsletter and got an immediate positive from our membership too – and resounding backing at the AGM.
The feeling we have is that if the government won't do it, we need to do something for ourselves.
Peterborough and District beekeepers are having another good year with 23 beginners starting training this coming weekend
(With apologies to participating associations not reached in time for deadline )
Dr Stephen Martin at Sheffield
When first we talked about this project at the Bee Forum last year, there were two themes. Firstly a desire to do something about research directly and secondly concern over BBKA research funding. I know that several folks talked to BBKA about this aspect and felt we should lead the way.
At the moment, with the £4.3 million funding announcement turning into something of a damp squib so far as research is concerned, projects such as ours have increased in significance. Discussions with BBKA (predominantly Tim Lovett) indicate a convergence of views on the way forward.
The NAO report this week has limited the impact of our press release but I am pleased to say that Beekeepers Quarterly has agreed to publish a piece written by Stephen Martin, that a draft of our original article has been received from Beecraft with a view to probable appearance in April issue and BBKA has requested a short piece for BBKA news.
Finally a personal thanks to Terry Gibson at West Norfolk (WNKLBA) for checking various submissions to BBSRC, to Wally Thrale for pushing things forward on the publicity and finance front and to the many contacts from beekeepers in the area encouraging the project forward.
Dr Martin is at Cambridge for the One-Day meeting on 14 th March, talking on "Current advances in bee virology". See www.cbka.org.uk or call 01223 834 620 if you wish to attend.
This year's Bee Forum will be on Thursday 7 th May. Venue still to be announced.
Peterborough Annual Auction Sacrewell Farm (on A47) Sat 18 th April
Beekeepers in East Anglia today are buzzing with excitement, as a £100,000 bee research project gets underway.
Public appreciation for the plight of honey bees has never been higher. Pollination contributes £165,000,000 to the agroeconomy, yet beekeepers report up to a third of their colonies have died in each of the last two years.
Member associations of The East Anglian Bee Forum decided to do something for themselves and have obtained funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to investigate the interaction of honey bees and varroa – a parasitic mite implicated in significant UK bee loss.
The beekeepers from Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, West Norfolk, Peterborough, Huntingdon, Essex and Suffolk have committed some £16,000 over four years to support a PhD research studentship at Sheffield University, with the balance of £100,000 from BBSRC.
Interest in beekeeping is increasing, with almost 100 new beekeepers on this year's beginner course in Bedfordshire: but will there be enough bee colonies alive for them all? Secretary of Bedfordshire Beekeepers Association, Wally Thrale feels this project paves the way for others. “We hope that other regions around the country will emulate this initiative and set up further areas of research to benefit beekeepers nationally.”
Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive said: "It is very valuable for researchers to work alongside industrial partners; by working with people who have practical experience of keeping bees, this student will be able to set their research in the important context of the agricultural industry. Varroa mite is a real threat to the UK's honeybee population and this work to understand the interactions between the mite and the honeybee host will provide the fundamental scientific knowledge that will help us to tackle this economically important problem."
Such collaborative awards in science and engineering' allow students to receive high quality research training in conjunction with an industrial partner. They are 4-year doctoral training grants for top quality bioscience graduates to undertake research (leading to a PhD) on a subject selected and supervised jointly by academic and industrial partners.
Industry Supervisor for the project, David Bancalari, a member of West Norfolk Beekeepers, which is heading the consortium of associations, said “This project brings beekeepers and researchers closer together, a very necessary step to ensuring that all involved in beekeeping agree the priorities for research. It is a first for BBSRC to work with beekeepers in this way - the combination of excellent science and committed beekeepers has been at the heart of this research funding.
Dr Stephen Martin of the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at Sheffield University, who will be mentoring the student, has been at the forefront of beekeeping research in the UK for many years. A recognized authority on the varroa mite, Dr Martin says that for a PhD studentship to succeed, the work must be original and capable of peer review by researchers both in the UK, Europe and world-wide. Research into beekeeping is very much a collaborative process in an international setting.
The National Bee Unit (NBU) delivers the Bee Health programmes on behalf of DEFRA and has a monitoring role in the project. “The E.A.R.S. studentship is a great demonstration of how the NBU, academics and industry can work together to access larger pots of money for honey bee research. The fact that the BBSRC has recognized a beekeeping association as an industrial partner is key to the success of this studentship. Schemes like BBSRC or NERC industrial studentships offer a great way of maximizing the benefit from precious industry funds. Hopefully this studentship will trail blaze for many more successful studentships from established honey bee researchers in the UK” says Dr Giles Budge, research coordinator at the NBU.
Tim Lovett, President of the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) which has mounted a high profile campaign to make the public aware of the problems with bees and the need for better research funding said, “This is most encouraging. The BBSRC is a major and important research funder and it is notable that they have chosen to back a topical and much needed piece of work which will hopefully help us to meet the challenge of the varroa mite.”
John Howat, Secretary of the Bee Farmers Association of the UK (BFA) , representing commercial beekeepers said “As members of the East Anglian Bee Forum, with bee farmers in many of the local beekeeping associations, we are delighted to see this trailblazing initiative and congratulate all East Anglian beekeepers on their commitment to research”.
Andy Wattam, organiser of the East Anglian Bee Forum said “This is excellent news and is a credit to the collective ethos of Beekeeping Associations in Eastern Region, with whom I am immensely proud to work. It also highlights the importance of bringing together all Associations and their representatives within an area to exchange ideas and focus on the advancement of beekeeping”.
As well as the associations involved, individual beekeepers have been working hard to obtain funding to stall the decline in bee numbers. Norfolk violin maker, Philip Taylor aired his concerns to Richard Osborne at Philip's local agricultural foundation and was delighted when he had a positive response.
Richard Osborne said “The Morley Agricultural Foundation exists to promote for public benefit the study and knowledge of agricultural science and the application of modern techniques to agriculture and husbandry in all their branches. The trustees are therefore pleased to provide financial support towards the cost of a PhD student engaged in investigating the interaction between varroa and the honeybee ( apis mellifera ). The trustees believe this research is worth supporting for the longer term benefit of agriculture in general.
For further press information please contact:
David Bancalari E.A.R.S. on 01603 755105/07733324810 david@bancalari.fslife.co.uk
Bee losses are based on a large survey by the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) that revealed that nearly one in three of the UK's 274,000 colonies, i.e. 90,000 colonies, did not survive last winter and spring, when there would be approximately 20,000 bees in each hive. Each of these 90,000 hives is estimated to contribute £600 annually to the agricultural economy.
• In the UK there are approximately 44,000 beekeepers managing around 274,000 hives.
• They produce 6000 tones of honey per year.
• Each hive is worth about £600 to the agricultural economy.
• In the UK, we produce only 20% of the honey we consume - the rest is imported.
• The varroa mite reached the UK in 1992 and now infests 95% of hives. Untreated colonies die in 2-3 years. Even low populations of mites reduce vitality and increase the spread of viruses.
• To collect a pound of honey a bee might have to fly a distance equivalent to twice round the world. This is likely to involve more than 10,000 flower visits on perhaps 500 foraging trips.
CONTACTS:
Eastern Associations Research Studentship (E.A.R.S.) David Bancalari Tel : 01603 755105 / 07733 324810 eMail : david@bancalari.fslife.co.uk
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Nancy Mendoza, Media Officer Tel: 01793 413355 website: www.bbsrc.ac.uk eMail : Nancy.Mendoza@bbsrc.ac.uk
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Marion O'Sullivan, Press Office Tel: 01793 411727 website : www.nerc.ac.uk eMail
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