Values and dependence of society on pollinators: Pensoft joins the EU project VALOR

VALOR is to prompt better understanding of our relationship with pollinators. Pensoft will lead activities related to co-developing tools for expanding engagement and interaction, and support communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities.

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Animal pollinators have become a flagship for biodiversity conservation, largely due to their globally recognised role in supporting broader biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and human well-being.

Despite this recognition and the widely acknowledged benefits of pollination, many of the pressures on pollinators persist. As a result, there is growing evidence of localised yet significant deficits in pollination services, affecting both crop pollination and other communities.

Coordinated by Dr Tom Breeze (University of Reading) and funded by Horizon Europe, VALOR is a multi-actor project that will develop a comprehensive, systems-based approach to gaining a deeper understanding of the cascading impacts of pollinator shifts from flower to fork and beyond.

The project will examine the effects of pollinator shifts on ecosystems, farm businesses, and local communities through primary research and modelling.

VALOR’s coordinator Dr Tom Breeze (UREAD) gave an introductory presentation during the project’s kick-off meeting in February (Reading, United Kingdom). 

The project aims to empower actors to develop a deeper comprehension of relationships with pollinators and will produce a range of co-developed tools for landowners, businesses, and policymakers.

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These tools will facilitate a better understanding of pollination-related risks and enable users to conduct their own studies by replicating the project’s methods and applying its models. To ensure comprehensive data collection without compromising scale, VALOR will adopt a systems-based approach, employing a series of in-depth case studies in focal regions to assess the importance of pollinators.

VALOR launched in January 2025 and will be running until the end of 2028.

To achieve its goals the VALOR project has six objectives: 

  1. Co-develop a better understanding of stakeholder knowledge needs around pollinators.
  2. Better understand the dependence of society and the economy on pollinators.
  3. Measure and model the cascading impacts of plant-pollinator networks on ecosystems and human well-being.
  4. Explore the consequences of pollinator loss through value chains.
  5. Forecast the resilience of pollinator networks and human benefits under future conditions.
  6. Co-develop tools to engage and empower actors about pollinator conservation.

Pensoft’s role

Building on its experience in communication, dissemination, and exploitation of results, Pensoft will focus on maximising the project’s impact and long-term legacy. This involves a broad scope of activities, including the development of the project’s visual identity and online presence, as well as the translation of research findings into policy recommendations.

As a leader of the work on co-developed tools for expanded engagement and interaction, Pensoft will support the development of a spatially explicit tool to allow users to explore the fine-scale changes in pollinator abundance and diversity, as well as pollination services resulting from a change in landscape management.

Moreover, Pensoft will assist the VALOR project in contributing to the Safeguard Knowledge Exchange Hub (Safe-Hub).

Pensoft will also facilitate collaboration opportunities with other projects, leveraging its expertise in numerous EU-funded projects. These efforts will be directed towards VALOR’s sister project: BUTTERFLY (101181930).

International consortium

The VALOR consortium comprises partners from thirteen European institutions, along with three associated partners, including China and Australia.

The consortium spans a wide and diverse range of scientific disciplines, from pollinator ecology, sociology, and economics to stakeholder engagement and communications. 

  1. University Of Reading (UREAD)
  2. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
  3. Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (ALU-FR) 
  4. Jagiellonian University (UJ) 
  5. The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
  6. Wageningen University (WU)
  7. Lund University (ULUND)
  8. University of La Laguna (ULL)
  9. University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)
  10. The University of Helsinki (UH)
  11. Pensoft Publishers (PENSOFT) 
  12. World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC)
  13. European Landowners’ Organization (ELO)
  14. University of New England (UNE)
  15. China West Normal University (CWNU)
  16. Beijing Forestry University (BJFU)

The VALOR project website is coming soon!

In the meantime, follow the project’s progress via its social media channels on BlueSky and LinkedIn.

Tags: ecosystem, VALOR, biodiversity, EU projects, conservation, Horizon, pollinators, ecology, ecosystem services, horizon europe