Flowers and pollinators for the buzzing cities

A four-year research grant, launched in 2025, supports research on urban pollinating insects.

Pollinators play a fundamental role in nature and human life. Nowadays, the pressure to protect pollinating insects is shifting from farmlands to cities. Here, they can be supported by maintaining semi-natural habitats and introducing novel techniques, such as less frequent mowing, flower sowing, and bee hotels, benefiting both pollinators and humans. However, the lack of evidence for novel solutions may trigger counterproductive ‘bee washing’ processes. Ecological research on urban pollination is in the spotlight with outstanding public interest. Therefore, researchers, local and (inter)national authorities are under pressure to develop and monitor pollinator-promoting interventions.

Our project aims to study urban pollinators by five priorities:

1) Explore the effectiveness of pollinator-promoting interventions;

2) Disentangle local and landscape-scale factors;

3) Develop simple sampling methods;

4) Investigate microclimate dependencies;

5) Work on European and global-level syntheses.

To achieve these, we are monitoring flowers and pollinators in parks, road verges, and ‘bee pastures’ mostly in Budapest, Hungary; developing novel approaches; collaborating in EU-level research. These studies also embrace the ambitious vision of creating multi-functional, resilient, and green infrastructures.

The STARTING (150181) grant of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund (Hungary) awarded Viktor Szigeti (research fellow at the Lendület Ecosystem Services Research Group  of HUN-REN CER ). The main objective of the STARTING sub-programme is to provide funding for postdoctoral researchers to start their independent research careers and to strengthen research creativity and excellence.

Overall, we are a small but emerging team, looking forward, challenging boundaries, and exploring innovative solutions for urban pollinators. This grant offers the opportunity to share captivating stories of cities buzzing with people, flowers, bees, and butterflies.