Project description
Harnessing wild bees for sustainable agriculture
Pollinator decline threatens reliable food production and biodiversity. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the NEWBEE project aims to help farmers leverage wild bees – often more effective than managed honeybees – for sustainable agriculture. Using AI-powered camera stations, the project will monitor bee activity and test practical attraction methods, such as flower strips and scent blends. Beyond field trials, NEWBEE will develop business cases and policy roadmaps to ensure real-world feasibility. By providing field-tested monitoring tools and evidence-based guidance, the project’s goal is to create practical pathways to enhance crop yields while restoring nature, supporting the European Green Deal and the EU Pollinators Initiative, and securing a resilient future for European food systems.
Objective
NEWBEE tackles two linked challenges: the decline of insect pollinators and the need for reliable nature-positive food production. Our goal is to help farmers make better use of wild bees, who are better pollinators than managed honeybees for many crops, while protecting biodiversity. NEWBEE will do this in three steps. First, we will monitor wild bees on farms using simple rugged camera stations. These stations record free-flying bees as they visit flowers and the footage is analysed with carefully validated artificial-intelligence methods to estimate when and where different species are most active. Second, we will test practical ways to draw wild bees to crops they already visit, such as well-chosen flower strips, nesting options and natural scent blends. Third, we will measure what matters: changes in pollinator diversity, fruit set, size and quality, together with the costs, risks and day-to-day practicality for farmers.
NEWBEE also addresses the aspects, important for real-world use. We will compare business cases for wild versus managed pollination, map legal and policy routes for deployment and co-create guidance with farmers, beekeepers and conservation groups. To ensure robust evidence, NEWBEE runs multi-season multi-crop trials across contrasting landscapes, pairing automated observations with expert checks and standard field surveys. The AI analysis is carefully calibrated and uncertainty-aware, so results are comparable across sites. Interventions are tested with clear treatment-control designs to separate real gains from weather or management noise.
By the end of NEWBEE, farmers and advisors will have field-tested monitoring methods, evidence-based attraction strategies as well as clear legal and economic guidance. The result is practical pathways to increase crop pollination while restoring biodiversity, directly supporting the European Green Deal, the EU Pollinators Initiative and global goals on food security and nature.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors optical sensors
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture fruit growing
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology entomology apidology
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- social sciences economics and business economics sustainable economy
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE - HORIZON TMA MSCA Staff Exchanges
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-SE-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
DH1 3LE DURHAM
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.