ORBIT
Title. Developing resources for European bee inventory and taxonomy
Funding. EU, 2021-2024.
Partners.
Contact. Paolo Rosa, Denis Michez.
ORBIT is a three-years project commissioned by the General Directorate for Environment of the European Commission to develop resources for European bee inventory and taxonomy. The overall objective of ORBIT is to create a centralised taxonomic facility groundwork for identification of European wild bees that will support other European projects such as the implementation of the EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EU-PoMS), the Preparatory Action for EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme and Indicators (SPRING project), the Horizon 2020 Europe research projects (POSHBEE, SAFEGUARD), National actions plan for pollinators and finally the European Red List of Bees. Through ORBIT, the European Commission will share and make accessible to researchers tools to identify European bees to facilitate a generation of large-scale scientific studies on traits-based biodiversity patterns and responses of wild bee communities to environmental changes more generalisable across ecosystems, taxa and spatial scales in Europe. In this Inception Report a detailed timetable for the implementation of the Contract is given and it specifies in detail the tasks and subtasks of the project.