The History of the Award

Dr Crane OBE, founder of the International Bee Research Association, creator and first editor of Journal of Apicultural Research, died in September 2007. To celebrate her life and to mark her huge contribution to apicultural science over more than half a century Eva Crane Memorial Prize has been created. This will be awarded to the best, most innovative and scientifically exciting, article published in the journal each year as judged by the current international panel of Editors.

Announcing the Winner of the 2010 Award

The editors of the Journal of Apicultural Research are pleased to announce that the winning paper for the 2010 Eva Crane Award is the original research article:

Declines of managed honey bees and beekeepers in Europe 

By Simon G Potts, Stuart P M Roberts, Robin Dean, Gay Marris, Mike A Brown, Richard Jones, Peter Neumann, Josef Settele.

IBRA has allocated Open Access to this paper which was published in Vol. 49 (1), 2009. 
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DOI: 10.3896/IBRA.1.49.1.02

Abstract: 
Growing evidence indicates that European managed honey bees are in decline, but information for Europe remains patchy and localized. Here we compile data from 18 European countries to assess trends in the number of honey bee colonies and beekeepers between 1965 and 2005. We found consistent declines in colony numbers in central European countries and some increases in Mediterranean countries. Beekeeper numbers have declined in all of the European countries examined. Our data support the view that honey bees are in decline at least in some regions, which is probably closely linked to the decreasing number of beekeepers. Our data on colony numbers and beekeepers must, however, be interpreted with caution due to different approaches and socioeconomic factors in the various countries, thereby limiting their comparability. We therefore make specific recommendations for standardized methodologies to be adopted at the national and global level to assist in the future monitoring of honey bees

Previous winners

2009:  Huo-Qing Zheng, Shui-Hua Jin, Fu-Ling Hu and Christian W W Pirk
          Sustainable multiple queen colonies of thoney bees, Apis mellifera ligustica

2008: Mark Greco, Allan Jones, Robert Spooner-Hart, Paul Holford
         X-ray computerised microtomography (MicroCT): a new technique for assessing external and internal   
        morphology of bees