Behavioural, Ecological and Socio-economic
Tools for Modelling Agricultural Policy

On 23 May 2022, the three sister projects BESTMAP, MIND STEP and AGRICORE that form the Agrimodels Cluster, gathered for a joint meeting with the DG AGRI in Brussels, Belgium. The purpose of the gathering was to update the DG AGRI representatives on the current results of each member of the Cluster, as well as to discuss further tasks, challenges and potential collaboration. In particular, the workshop focused on the data, modelling and policy perspectives  of DG AGRI and the...

Between March and April 2022, our five case studies (the UK, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and Serbia) conducted co-design workshops with regional and national stakeholders. The goal of these talks was to discuss how our modeling results can best support policy decisions and how the interactive dashboard we're working on can help us use our findings. Interactive session during the co-designing workshop The team gained valuable insights from the engagement of our...

A new BESTMAP-funded research paper has been recently published in the Science of The Total Environment journal. The study investigates the accuracy of modelled changes in freshwater provision over time and has been conducted by the BESTMAP members Arjan Gosal, Andrew Johnson and project coordinator Prof. Guy Ziv from the University of Leeds, Paul Evans, James Bullock and John Redhead from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Matthew Charlton from the Environment Agency and Prof. Dr. Anna...

BESTMAP is beyond happy to announce that in the upcoming fall, between 12 and 16 September of 2022, the project is organising a Summer School, specifically tailored to look into the modelling policy impacts on ecosystem services and biodiversity. While actively working towards transforming the future EU rural policies’ design and monitoring, BESTMAP is holding the Summer School with the aim to draw upon developed methods and experience from the project, operating in five...

Between February and March 2022, the BESTMAP team performed an online survey designed as a discrete choice experiment. The study was given to farmers in our five case studies: the UK, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and Serbia. The exploratory character of the poll aimed to explore new facets of BESTMAP's research subject and examine how farmers decide whether or not to implement agri-environmental programs. The survey data is still being processed. The questionnaire's...

A recently developed by the BESTMAP team research article has been published in Regional Environmental Change journal. The paper is developed by the project partners Dr. Bartosz Bartkowski, Charlotte Schüßler and Birgit Müller from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Germany. Understanding farmers’ behaviour and their different responses to environmental change, institutional change and policy interventions is important to...

A newly published BESTMAP-supported article in the Regional Environmental Change journal, investigates the land-use intensification in agroecosystems that has led to population decline in farmland birds. The research paper has been conducted by a team of leading experts amongst whom are the BESTMAP partners Stephanie Roilo and Prof. Anna Cord from the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, and Assoc. Prof. Tomas Vaclavik (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic)....

BESTMAP has just started an open project collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal in order to raise the project's visibility and improve the dissemination of all publicly available project outcomes. The BESTMAP collection in RIO intends to widen the accessibility and openness of project findings by publishing not just regular scientific articles, but also additional materials that cover the complete research cycle. Reports, protocols, techniques, research and other...

A press release mentioning BESTMAP has been published in the leading science communication platforms EurekAlert! and Alpha Galileo. The news piece informs about the project’s participation at the 2021 EU Conference on modelling for policy support, which has been organised by the European Commission’s Competence Centre on Modelling (CC-MOD) and took place between 22 to 26 November 2021. The BESTMAP coordinator Prof. Guy Ziv (University of Leeds, the UK)...

With the holiday season approaching and the Christmas mood slowly taking over, BESTMAP wants to take a moment to wish you all pleasant holidays and a prosperous New Year 2022!

Between 2 and 4 November 2021, BESTMAP held its second annual General Assembly (GA) meeting in a virtual environment. Led by the Project Coordinator Guy Ziv and Project Manager Jodi Gunning of University of Leeds, UK, the event was attended by representatives from all of the BESTMAP-partnering organisations.  Divided in three days, the agenda of the GA meeting followed through the BESTMAP story so far, discussions and setting the plan for the end game of the project. Each...

Between 22 and 26 November 2021, BESTMAP will be attending the 2021 EU Conference on modeling for policy support. The European Commission’s Competence Centre on Modelling (CC-MOD) has organised this conference which aims to bring together researchers and policy makers from European and international institutions, Member States, universities, research institutes and consultancies to identify common challenges and solutions when using models to support policy making across all policy...

BESTMAP will be attending the Early Career Biogeographers Conference between 22 and 24 October 2021. The event has been originally planned to be held in Amsterdam, the same as previous years, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year it will be fully online. The conference will be participated by a great number of international scientists, amongst whom will be BESTMAP’s member Miss Stephanie Roilo from the Technical University Dresden and Prof. Anna Cord, co-coordinator of ...

On the 14th and 15th of October, BESTMAP is going to attend at the second edition of the Farm to Fork Conference, where European stakeholders, interested in helping to shape the EU’s path towards sustainable food systems, will gather to discuss the progress made on the initiatives foreseen in the Farm to Fork Strategy, support the EU efforts to achieve a global transition to sustainable food systems and put emphasis on transition enablers. This year the conference will be held...

On 20-22 September 2021, BESTMAP will participate at the Landscape 2021 Conference – Diversity for Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture.  Landscape 2021 will bring together scientists from across disciplines with key actors to explore whether and how diversity and diversification can contribute to a more sustainable and resilient agriculture. Promising approaches reduce trade-offs between high productivity and use of external resources, the provisioning of ecosystem...

In pursuit of the goal to establish ecological and socio-economic tools for modelling agricultural policy, which will enhance the sustainability of agricultural landscapes, while ensuring farmers’ livelihoods, BESTMAP wants to share key achievements with policy and decision makers. To achieve this, the project created a summary leaflet, presenting the twelve Brussels-based interviews with representatives of agricultural producers, inputs industry, environmental NGOs and expert...

The AGRIMODELS Cluster, formed by the Horizon 2020 projects BESTMAP, AGRICORE and MIND STEP is going to participate at the sixteenth congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economics (EAAE), which will take place on 20 – 23 July 2021 in an entirely virtual environment.  The cluster is going to take part in the congress with an individual session on the use of individual decision-making models to support policies. Each of the three projects is going to...

The first BESTMAP-supported research paper is now available in the People and Nature journal. The study investigates the possible ways of making socio-environmental modelling more prominent to support policy and management and has been conducted with the involvement of the BESTMAP experts Meike Will (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany) and Brigit Muller (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany)....

A press release titled "Farm to fork strategy: Public hearing on improving the EU’s food system" became recently available on the European Parliament’s website. The publication informs about the discussion between experts and Members of European Parliament from the Agriculture and Environment committees. During the meeting, the main topic of discussion between the present parties were the possible ways through which the EU food system may become more sustainable, resilient and...

BESTMAP is delighted to share that the project’s coordinator, Prof Guy Ziv, has been invited by the United Kingdom’s government to serve as a member of the Environmental Land Management Modelling Expert Panel (MEP).  The Environmental Land Management programme is the cornerstone of the UK’s new agricultural policy. Founded on the principle of public money for public goods, it aims to achieve the goals of the 25 Year Environment Plan and commitment to net zero...