During more than thirty five years of ecological research I’ve been involved in a wide range of funded projects that have taken me all over the world and resulted in some highly cited publications in journals such as Science, Ecology, Oikos, and Ecology Letters.

In addition I’ve worked with businesses, professional organisations, NGOs and other non-academic partners on projects related to mainstreaming biodiversity and the conservation of wildlife.

If you would like to discuss collaborating with me on a project that you think I can add value to, or if you need advice on a potential funding bid, please get in touch via the Contacts page.

Here’s a list of the main projects and collaborations with which I’m currently or have recently been involved:

ProPollSoil – this is a project within the EU’s Mission Soil programme that explores two big questions: How does the health of our soils shape the fate of pollinators? And how do pollinators influence soil health? It will run for four years, from 2025 to 2029. Read about the kick-off meeting here: https://jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/11/21/connecting-soils-and-pollinators-the-propollsoil-project-kicks-off-in-germany/ and we’ll be adding things to the official website as the project develops: https://www.propollsoil.eu/  

Butterfly – a four-year, EU-funded project that ‘aims to significantly enhance society’s capacity to appraise, foresee, and respond to the threats posed by cascading impacts of pollinator decline’. It will run from 2025 to 2029 and you can read more about it here: https://jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/04/07/project-butterfly-takes-flight-in-paris/ and on the official website: https://butterfly-europe.eu/ 

SYMBIOSIS – funded by the EU Agency for Railways and in collaboration with UIC (the International Union of Railways), this Coordination and Support Action (CSA) project runs from 2024 to 2027. It will continue some of the work initiated by REVERSE (see below). The project website is here: https://symbiosis-transport.eu/ and you can read about the kick-off meeting here: https://jeffollerton.co.uk/2024/09/12/the-symbiosis-project-kicks-off-in-paris/

Collaborative research on plant-pollinator interactions in China and beyond: with Dr Zong-Xin Ren (Kunming Institute of Botany) and international partners, funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Yunnan Government (2020-current). You can read more about this work in a series of blog posts beginning here: https://jeffollerton.co.uk/2024/04/29/first-footsteps-in-kunming/

The WorldFAIR Project – making plant-pollinator data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable: with multiple international partners, funded by the European commission (2022-2024) – see http://worldfair-project.eu

REVERSE – a biodiversity strategy for the European Rail Network: with Prof. Richard Pywell (UKCEH) and funded by UIC, the International Union of Railways (2021-2023) – more information can be found here: https://uic.org/projects-99/reverse

Chequered skipper reintroduction project: with Prof. Tom Brereton (Butterfly Conservation) and Dr Duncan McCollin (University of Northampton) funded by Butterfly Conservation (2018-2023) – see my blog post on Hunting the Chequered Skipper. Although that phase of the project has ended, I continue to sit on the Chequered Skipper Steering Group which is overseeing the monitoring of the reintroduced population and future reintroductions. 

Understanding when biocontrol and enemy release affect plant populations: with Prof. Angela Moles and Dr Stephen Bonser (University of New South Wales) and Dr Raghu Sathyamurthy (CSIRO) funded by the Australian Research Council (2019-2022) – see: https://jeffollerton.co.uk/2022/10/20/when-organisms-lose-their-friends-a-new-review-of-the-missed-mutualist-hypothesis-just-published/

Safeguarding Pollination Services in a Changing World (SURPASS2) – a new international partnership to improve knowledge, build research capacity and initiate new collaborative actions for the conservation and sustainable management of pollinators across Latin America: with Dr Claire Carvell (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) and multiple UK and Latin American partners funded by NERC (2019-2022) – see: https://bee-surpass.org/

Modelling landscapes for resilient pollination services in the UK: with Prof. Simon Potts and Dr Tom Breeze (University of Reading),  Prof. Helen Lomax (University of Huddersfield) and Dr Jim Rouquette (Natural Capital Solutions) funded by BBSRC (2017-2020)

Genetic and morphological changes in UK bees to a century of agricultural land-use change: in collaboration with Dr Richard Gill (Imperial College, London) and Prof. Ian Barnes (Natural History Museum, London) funded by NERC (2017-2020)

In addition to these research projects I was a board member of the Nenescape environment and heritage project involving multiple Northamptonshire partners, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (2016-2021)