Today, May 20, is world bee day, a day to celebrate all that bees have to offer and the special relationship humans and bees have shared for thousands of years. Joining in the celebration, we highlight the EU Bee Partnership's [1] innovation for the future of bees: The EU Bee Partnership Prototype Platform on Bee Health [2]. It is a practical solution to identify gaps in bee data sharing and democratising information. The platform – made possible by a grant from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) – centralises, processes and visualises data relevant to the status of bees and pollinators in general.

Guided by EFSA, stakeholders for bee and pollinator health have joined together to collaborate in this never-before-seen platform. Beekeeping and farming associations, phytopharmaceutical producers, veterinary associations, research collectives, and public scientific bodies work together to link data and improve information on bee health. They are all members of the EU Bee Partnership collaborating to reach innovation achievements for pollinator data. Inspired by the collaborative nature of bees, the EUBP is transforming fragmented data into valuable information. The EUBP concluded that bee data lacked standardisation, integration and communication. Hence, the platform's goal is to respond to these deficiencies and support decision-making at all levels to improve conditions for pollinators.
The EU Bee Partnership Platform on Bee Health (EUBP-P) is currently under development. The partnership will unveil the final prototype in June 2021. The prototype platform will be available to the public, providing free access to relevant bee data, including: 

  • Networks of beehive digital monitoring.

  • Varroa infestation data.

  • Winter mortality rates.

  • Socioeconomic data such as the number of beehives per country/region and the value and evolution of colony products.

  • And more...


EUBP Platform Preview


The NGO for the protection of bees and pollinators in Europe, BeeLife European Beekeeping Coordination, is leading the platform's development in the name of the EUBP, under grant Grant Agreement NP/EFSA/SCER/2020/01 with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

The prototype platform is improving every day, including new datasets and providing valuable information thanks to the collaborative spirit of a growing community. The platform counts with an increasing number of data providers who share their data for a common objective: the future of bees. 

Do you collect data or log your observations? We can provide you with a stable environment to manage and visualise your data. Your data can also benefit from other uses and will not cost you any more effort. Besides, you will join a growing community working for the future of bees by unleashing the power of data. Some of the current data providers include beekeepers, farmers, associations, digital monitoring producers, researchers, national or regional projects, and plant protection products producers. 

World Bee Day is the occasion to celebrate bees and also to raise awareness of the vital role they play in our culture and our environment. Additionally, we celebrate today the innovations that seek to improve the future of bees, such as the EUBP platform. Given the importance of bees and pollinators in general, we highlight today the need to continue striving towards practical solutions to halt and reverse the ongoing crisis. The EUBP platform is a new development for the future of bees. 



[1] EFSA. 2018. Terms of Reference for an EU Bee Partnership. https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/sp.efsa.2018.EN-1423
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