C2I 2022 Wild Card winner - BeeSave

Bees play a vital role in our ecosystem – according to Greenpeace, honeybees perform around 80 per cent of all worldwide pollination. 70 out of the top 100 human food crops, supplying the majority of the world’s nutrition, are pollinated by bees.

Essential to our food security, the declining bee population over the past 50 years is a key environmental concern for our planet, and several factors are thought to be at play. These include viruses, pesticides, poor nutrition and changing agricultural practices as well as parasites.

The Varroa mite is an external parasitic mite that attacks adult honeybees and their brood, a key threat to the UK’s bee population. Tackling and controlling the spread of Varroa mites is critical to supporting the honeybee population and ensuring food security and uncontaminated honey.

Nottingham University’s ‘BeeSave’ project hopes to address just this, with a solution involving a novel, efficient and convenient thermal management approach. The Nottingham researchers worked with industrial equipment supplier PCM Products, (PCMP), and beekeeping businesses E.H Thorne Beehives and Heathy Bees.