Better-B – €6.3 million project to adapt to advanced beekeeping technologies. USAMV Cluj-Napoca is a partner in the European consortium

The University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV) Cluj-Napoca, through the Faculty of Animal Husbandry and Biotechnologies, Discipline of Beekeeping and Sericulture, is part of the European consortium of the Better-B Project, which manily aims at the restoration, harmonization and physiological balancing of bee colonies. The consortium consists of 18 partners from 14 countries and is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Dirk de Graaf, University of Ghent (Belgium), who was awarded the title Doctor Honoris Causa of USAMV Cluj-Napoca in 2021.

The Better-B project is funded with €6.3 million from the EU, UK and Switzerland and the research aims at improving beekeeping technology, resistance to abiotic stress, climate change, habitat loss and hazardous chemicals.
The main topic concerns bee colonies, which are often poorly adapted to cope with external stresses such as climate change, pesticides, challenge and parasite attack, exacerbated by modern beekeeping practices. Experts in the project stress that the resilience of beekeeping is primarily underpinned by harnessing the power of nature, restoring harmony and balance, both at the level of the bee as an individual and at the level of the colony or between the colony and its environment. The implementation of this new approach to beekeeping management will be undertaken in close collaboration with Romanian beekeepers as stakeholders. The project specialists believe that harmony and balance must take place on three levels – the environment, honey bees and beekeeping practices, all of which will be addressed in the four-year Better-B Project.