About: The University of Reading is among the top 30 UK universities in the world and is home to over 27,000 students from over 160 countries. Founded in 1892, the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development has been contributing to teaching and research across all aspects of agriculture: from agroecology, farm business, animal science, international development, food marketing and consumer behaviour.

Within VALOR: UREAD is the overall coordinator of VALOR and will participate in all Work Packages. The team will undertake our systems-based approach to research in the UK focal region but also take a leading role in understanding the shape of relationship between pollinator visitation and yield (WP4), co-developing scenarios of future European land use (WP1), defining metrics for businesses (WP7) and enhancing EU Natural Capital accounting for pollinators (WP2). UREAD will also coordinate collaborations between VALOR and other EU and National projects on pollinators, biodiversity and farming.

About: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is the only Swedish university fully devoted to natural and social science research and education concerning natural resource management with strong links to stakeholders in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and environment. Three prominent, closely collaborating departments are engaged in VALOR in a highly interdisciplinary team. The Department of Ecology is possibly the largest aggregation of research resources in Sweden in the area of applied ecology, covering all major aspects of natural resource management in terrestrial ecosystems, agriculture and forestry. The Department of Economics holds internationally acknowledged expertise in agricultural and natural resource economics and business. The Department of Urban and Rural Development includes strong relevant expertise in social sciences related to environmental communication and rural development. SLU hosts a number of national centres with particular relevance to VALOR, including the SLU Future Food, MISTRA Food Futures, Competence Centre for Chemical Pesticides, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, and Centre for Biological Control.

Within VALOR: SLU leads the overarching WP1 on multi-actor engagement and co-development, including tasks underpinning all other WPs in multi-actor processes. SLU conducts discourse analysis with key EU and focal region actors to understand the role of and knowledge about pollinators in policy formation and governance. This work feeds into co-developed pollinator-relevant scenario narratives, decision tools and demonstration case studies. SLU leads the building in WP4 of farm-level economic production functions for pollination services, and contributes to assessing implementation costs of measures to halt and reverse pollinator declines. SLU leads a task in WP5 exploring the role of pollinators in global trade networks. SLU contributes to several additional tasks concerning ecological, social, and economic consequences of current and projected land use change and for dissemination.

About: The University of Freiburg, founded in 1457, is one of Germany’s oldest and most prestigious universities. Located in southern Germany, it features 11 faculties and a diverse academic environment with around 24,500 students. The research conducted by the Chair of Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology focuses on plant-insect interactions and ecosystem functions such as pollination. We collaborate with stakeholders from nature conservation, industry, and society to gain insights into diverse perspectives, shaping the scientific objectives of our projects while facilitating the exchange of scientific and practical knowledge.

Within VALOR: Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg is leading WP2: Synthesising knowledge on the role and status of pollination services. The team will be involved in writing manuscripts and creating databases on European key pollinators and crop dependencies on pollinators, as well as reporting on the pollination services vulnerability across European biogeographic regions. Additionally, the University of Freiburg is strongly involved in WP3: Pollinator Dependencies of Natural Ecosystems. As coordinators of the Horizon Europe project RestPoll, we represent a direct link to this project that explores wild pollinator restoration through a transdisciplinary Living Labs approach. In VALOR, we support the extension of the work in several of these Living Labs to better understand the wider ecological, economic and societal impacts of these restorations across landscapes.

About: The Kraków University, the predecessor of UJ, is the oldest higher education institution in Poland and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded on 12 May 1364 by the Polish king Casimir the Great. The University was re-founded by King Vladislaus Jagiełło on 26 July 1400 thanks to the contribution of Queen Jadwiga, who left a considerable portion of her private estate to the University in her last will. Hence, today it is called the Jagiellonian University. Currently, the Jagiellonian University comprises fifteen faculties, including three medical ones, and now forms the Medical College. The Faculty of Biology is the most prestigious biological faculty in the country consisting of the Faculty`s Educational Centre and three research institutes: the Institute of Botany and the oldest Botanical Garden in Poland, the Institute of Environmental Sciences (researchers from both Institutes are involved in various tasks of VALOR), and the Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research. The Botanical Institute of the Jagiellonian University was founded in 1913 as the first modern institute in Poland specialising in botany. It has produced several thousand papers in various areas of botany, and it has become one of the important botanical centres in this part of Europe. The Institute of Environmental Sciences became a European Union Centre of Excellence in 2002 through the project “Implementing basic and applied research in environmental sciences for the benefit of local communities.” This project facilitated numerous international collaborations and enhanced research infrastructure.

Within VALOR: Two separate research groups are involved in VALOR: the pollinator research group at the Department of Plant Ecology, Institute of Botany and the Socio-Environmental Research Team, Institute of Environmental Sciences. The first - being the leader of the UJ research team - is involved mainly in the empirical data collection on pollination at the Polish Focal Site (mostly Task 3) and cooperation with the UJ Campus Living Lab, while the latter is involved in the socio-environmental research and workshops (mostly Task 2 and 4.)

About: Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC) is a public research institute part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) dedicated to the study of Ecology, Evolution and the Conservation of Biodiversity. Its mission is to develop multidisciplinary research at the highest level that contributes to the understanding of ecology, evolution and conservation of biodiversity. EBD-CSIC seeks to understand how biodiversity is generated and maintained, and how it responds to environmental change. We aim to assess the consequences of biodiversity loss and what are the possibilities for its conservation and restoration. An important part of our projects and dedication consists of transferring knowledge to society.

Within VALOR: EBD-CSIC leads WP3 on the natural ecosystems' dependence on pollinators. The team will coordinate the collection of empirical data across the EU to understand how the network of interactions formed by pollinators across space and time affects the stability of natural ecosystems using cutting-edge modelling techniques. EBD-CSIC will also lead the Spanish case study, where social, economic, and ecological data will be gathered around the emblematic Doñana National Park, and contribute this data to the rest of the work packages.

About: Wageningen University (WU), founded in 1918, is a leading Dutch institution specialising in agriculture, environmental sciences, and life sciences. It has approximately 14,000 students from over 100 countries. WU is globally recognised for its research and education in sustainable food production, biodiversity, climate change, and environmental sustainability. WU collaborates closely with governments, businesses, and international organisations to address global challenges related to food security, nature conservation, and circular economies.

Within VALOR: Two chair groups from Wageningen University are involved in VALOR: the Business Economics Group and the Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group. The Business Economics Group will analyse the importance of pollination for value creation in food, energy, medical, bio-based material and feed value chains. Leading WP 5, the team will investigate the impact of changes in pollinator abundance on companies downstream from farms, and evaluate strategies to build resilience against wild pollinator decline with regard to their cost effectiveness. The Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group will lead WP3 and will be in charge of identifying which habitat types are most vulnerable to pollinator decline and of analysing the sensitivity of plant communities to declines in pollinator populations.

About: Lund University is one of the largest institutions of research and higher education in Scandinavia. It was founded in 1666, and today the University has eight faculties: engineering, science, law, social sciences, economics, medicine, humanities & theology, fine and performing arts and several research centres and specialised schools. It is a research-intensive University with over 3500 active researchers. The University has significant experience from EU research and innovation and has participated in over 900 projects from Framework Programme 1 onwards. Lund University is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top 100 universities.

Within VALOR: ULUND leads WP6 on forecasting society’s dependence on pollinators and resilience to declines. The team will lead on modelling the effects of socio-economic drivers of land management on pollinators and agriculture. The models will be used to predict the resilience of pollinators and stakeholders to future land-use change within and beyond the focal regions, and ultimately to refine policy changes to mitigate pollinator declines. ULUND will lead the Swedish case study as well as contribute to other work packages.

About: The University of La Laguna (ULL) is one of the southernmost universities in Europe and the largest in Macaronesia, with over 200 years of history. As a natural link between Europe, Africa and the Americas, it has established long-standing academic partnerships across all three continents. ULL is home to a vibrant community of around 21,000 students and is renowned for its research excellence in fields such as astrophysics, biomedical sciences and life sciences.

Within VALOR: ULL will assess the vulnerability of pollination service for both crops and wild plants across European biogeographical regions, including the unique pollinator communities of the Macaronesian region. ULL is also leading the Canary Islands case study, focusing on the Güímar Valley (Tenerife), where ecological, economic and social data will be collected and contributed to the wider research effort in several work packages.

About: BOKU University (BOKU), founded in 1872, is a leading Austrian research institution specialised in life sciences, agriculture and forestry. Located in Vienna, it has approximately 11,000 students. The university is structured into 6 departments. Within the Department of Economics and Social Sciences, the Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics develops and evaluates concepts for sustainable production systems for crops, animal husbandry and biological resources, both in conventional and organic systems. The balance between ecology and economy is at the core of the institute's research.

Within VALOR: BOKU is leading WP4 on local-scale economic and social dependencies. The team will coordinate data collection of socio-economic data across focal regions. In two tasks, BOKU will explore the impact of pollinator shifts on the profitability of agricultural land use and develop possible reorientations of agricultural businesses to potential pollinator losses. These will be evaluated both for their economic and social appropriateness. BOKU also contributes to other tasks across VALOR.

About: The University of Helsinki is the oldest and largest institution of academic education in Finland. The university is an international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. The Department of Food and Nutrition promotes a sustainable food system that makes it possible for humans and the environment to thrive. The Department possesses strong expertise in research on the significance of nutrition and food among different population groups, children and adolescents in particular, in the promotion of health and prevention of diseases.

Within VALOR: UH is a co-leader of WP5 and leads the task focused on the dependence of human nutrition on pollinators. The team will build an understanding of the role of pollinated crops in the diets and nutritional adequacy of populations in European countries for different strata of the population, including specific population groups. UH will also model how the animal-pollinator dependent foods could be substituted in different pollinator decline scenarios, different population groups, and different regions to maintain adequate nutrition and achieve environmental sustainability of food consumption.

About: Pensoft Publishers is an SME specialising in academic, open-access book and journal publishing, software development and web design, project dissemination, and science communication. The company’s project department is a motivated team of active scientists, project managers and science communicators offering services including consultancy and development of communication strategies, plans for dissemination and exploitation, and data management plans.

Within VALOR: Pensoft is leading WP7: Co-developed Tools for Expanded Engagement and Interaction. The team will be involved in supporting the development of a spatially explicit tool to allow users to explore the fine-scale changes in pollinator abundance and diversity, and pollination services resulting from a change in landscape management. Additionally, Pensoft will contribute to integrating essential VALOR outcomes into the Safeguard Knowledge Exchange Hub - Safe-Hub. Pensoft is also involved in WP8: Project Management and Impact, where their responsibility is to create project branding and the website, develop communication, dissemination and exploitation strategies, along with a data management plan, support the ongoing communication and dissemination activities, and additionally support the collaboration activities with VALOR's sister project, BUTTERFLY.

About: The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is a global centre of excellence on biodiversity and nature’s contribution to society and the economy. We work at the interface of science, policy, and practice to tackle the global crisis facing nature and support the transition to a sustainable future for people and the planet. UNEP-WCMC operates as a collaboration between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UK charity WCMC.

Within VALOR: UNEP-WCMC's VALOR engagement encompasses two primary focus areas. UNEP-WCMC will lead a user needs assessment to identify stakeholder needs regarding pollinator tools, both current and future. Through structured surveys and interviews across food, energy, materials, and land management sectors, the user needs assessment will determine information gaps to enhance decision-making processes. Additionally, UNEP-WCMC will integrate key project findings into the ENCORE platform, an established resource utilised by businesses and financial institutions worldwide. ENCORE currently documents sector-nature relationships, but through VALOR, it will incorporate more detailed pollinator dependency data that accounts for variations across economic activities, geographical locations, and specific commodities. 

About: The ELO, created in 1972, is a unique federation of national associations, which represents the interests of the landowners, land and forest and building managers and rural entrepreneurs at the European political level. The ELO’s statutory commitment is to defend and promote sustainable development, conservation and protection of the environment, cultural heritage, renewable energies and responsible use of natural resources. To further its positions the ELO has developed a communication strategy including elaboration and coordination of action programmes, involvement in the EU and international events, think-tank management, publication of position papers and studies, etc. The efficiency of the organization relies on its ability to gather together rural actors, land and forest managers, scientists, businesses and political decision makers at local, regional, national and European levels.

Within VALOR: ELO will facilitate collaboration with focal region stakeholders and ensure continuous access to its user base for broader stakeholder recruitment and tool testing throughout the project. We will contribute technical expertise to tasks exploring the role of pollinator science in EU policy making and lead efforts to co-develop value-based narratives with focal region stakeholders. Additionally, ELO will coordinate a regular partner forum, gathering stakeholder feedback to inform a science-practice research paper that will guide the development of the VELOR handbook of methods. We will actively support project tasks by disseminating key outcomes to relevant stakeholders. Building on experience from the Safeguard project, ELO will co-lead efforts to develop and distribute the VALOR handbook on best practices, monitoring, and data analysis.