Graham Stone wins Impact Prize for Urban Pollinators project

Professor Graham Stone has been awarded the University of Edinburgh’s Research Impact Prize, in recognition of his work on improving urban greenspaces for biodiversity.

The Research Impact Prizes are awarded to individuals and teams who have demonstrated outstanding contributions towards one of five categories. 

Graham, who won the sustained partnership category with colleagues in the City of Edinburgh Council, Defra, and Scotia Seeds, is among sixty outstanding individual and teams nominated from across the University.

This award recognizes the importance of building sustainable partnerships between researchers and non-academic communities and organisations for delivering impact from research. 

Urban Pollinators Project

Graham Stone and colleagues have built a deeply integrated relationship that has directly shaped how urban greenspaces are designed and managed, with measurable benefits for biodiversity and public wellbeing in Edinburgh and across the UK.

Graham Stone in field of flowers

Through the Urban Pollinators project, Graham and colleagues in the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) greenspace team, defra and Scottish native wildflower experts Scotia Seeds, showed how urban biodiversity could be enhanced by planting city parks with native wildflower meadows.

They also designed a seed mix of native Scottish wildflowers that thrives in urban habitats, and which provides nectar and pollen all through the season without the need to incorporate the non-UK and non-Scottish species often present in commercial seed mixes. 

Over the last 8 years, over 2.5 tonnes of the resulting ‘Urban Pollinators’ seed mix have been planted in Edinburgh public and university green spaces, and at many other sites across Scotland and the rest of the UK. 

Graham now contributes to planning and management of Edinburgh’s biodiversity through membership of the council-led Edinburgh Biodiversity Action Plan committee.

He also provides regular training, and designs field experiments that help the City of Edinburgh Council answer their own specific greenspace management questions. 

This ongoing relationship has raised significant joint external funding over the last decade and increased the capacity of the CEC to apply science to their greenspace management planning.

Significance

Cities can become important refuges for insect species, which face threats such as pesticides and loss of natural flower-rich habitats.

Bees and other pollinating insects are essential for the reproduction of many plants and contribute over £500,000,000 annually to the UK alone - based on the economic value of crops produced. 

Pollinators are also essential to maintain the health of the planet - supporting other plants and wildlife. 

Dwindling numbers of pollinating insects could lead to huge sustainability challenges, including threats to human food production and increasing risks that fragile ecosystems will collapse.

This prize recognises a sustained team effort over more than a decade. Our meadows work brings practical ecology into the community, and we couldn’t have done it without the help and support of all involved. It has been a massively rewarding experience – and seeing people stop to gaze across one of our meadows, full of nodding flowers and the buzzing of bees – is the best thing ever.

Professor Graham Stone Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary

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