18-19/04/2024: Kelly Martinou and Katerina Athanasiou were delighted to participated at the 2nd Management Committee meeting of Pragmatick in Nyborg, Denmark
23/03/2024: Wonderful to Celebrate Earth hour, learning about nocturnal animals . By co-organising the Life in the Dark Event at the Akrotiri Environmental Centre together with the teachers from Education Unit Koula MichailSophie KamenouElena Sophocleous and Eloise Springate
16/02/2024: Dr. Kelly Martinou gave a talk at “Science Fridays” Live Webinar Series by Enalia Physis Environmental Research Center
15/02/2024: Profesor Helen Roy and Dr Kamil Erguler gave talks on Biological Invasions & Launch of VEClim respectively, at the Cyprus Institute, in collaboration with the British High Commission for the “The 2024 Ronald Ross Lecture Series”
13-14/02/2024: Delighted to host a meeting on One Health and new technologies at the Akrotiri Environmental Education Centre with many internation and national experts on this topic
04/02/2024: Dr Tom August visited our team and especially his fellow Ms Andreas Josephides, under the Darwin Fellowship DPLUS197
04/02/2024: Our team celebrates the wetlands day " Akrotiri Marsh Through Citizen Science" with the Akrotiri Environmental Education Centre
08/11/2023: Dr Kelly Martinou gave a talk for the postgraduate seminar series of the University of Cyprus on the findings of the IPBES report and the invasive alien species in Cyprus
04/10/2023-07/10/2023: We are delighted to participate at HELECOS-11, Patras, Greece
27/08/2023 - 04/09/2023: Dr Angeliki F. Martinou participates at the IPBES 10 Plenary and launch of the report. You can find more about the IPBES Invasive Alien Species Report here.
17-21/07/2023: Tegan Ashford, High School student visited our laboratory for her school project on work week!
26/06/2023-01/07/2023: Dr Kelly Martinou and Jakovos Demetriou participated to "Identifying and managing invasive non-native species concern" conferece in Gibraltar (DPLUS175)
26-28/05/2023: We are very happy that the Alien CSI 2023 BioBlitz was successfully completed this May with the help of the Akrotiri Environmental Education Centre and Mrs Sophie Kamenou 16/05/2023: Dr Elli Tzirkalli, participated in the «Digital Actions as Solution to Societal Challenges: Maker culture, Hacktivism and Citizen Science» Conference organised by HEIDI Project and delivered a talk on «Engage citizens to wildlife monitoring and conservation».
14/05/2023: Ms Katerina Athanasiou and Mr Andreas Josephides, participated at the "Akrotiri Spring Festival" by Birdlife, at the Akrotiri Environmental Education Centre.
11-25/05/2023: Dr Kelly Martinou participated in a workshop held at Anguilla led by UKCEH on: Enhancing monitoring and prevention of invasive non-native species across UKOTs within the framework (https://darwinplus.org.uk/project/DPLUS175/)
01/05/2023-31/03/2024: Ioanna Angelidou, member of our team and Darwin Fellow won the grant for Darwin Plus Local for Raising awareness about the importance of arthropods DPLR1\1049. Congratulation Ioanna!!!
21/04/2023: Dr Elli Tzirkalli, organised a mini-workshop on «Butterfly identification and monitoring in Cyprus» at Akamas Regional Multipurpose Center in Kathikas and delivered a talk on «Introduction to butterfly identification and monitoring (CyBMS) in Cyprus». The event was supported by the SPRING project.
29-31/03/2023: We are delighted that Professor Helen Roy and Dr. Marc Botham will be with us to present their work on 30/03/2023 on pollinators and biological invasions during our Darwin Plus event on the Akrotiri biodiversity studies.
6-8/03/2023: Mr. Jakovos Demetriou and Dr. Kelly Maritnou participated at the "Invasive alien species at the SBAs Cyprus" in the framework of the "Terrestrial Restoration, and Invasive Non-Native Species in the UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies” workshop organised by the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum. 16-17/2/2023: Dr Kelly Martinou participated a the PRAGMATICK Workshop Budapest, HungaryStockholm Paradigm, DAMA Protocol and citizen science: applications for the PRAGMATICK COST Action
08-09/12/2022: Our team members present at "Akrotiri Peninsula - Biotic & Abiotic Monitoring, Status & Trends DPLUS141: Habitat Restoration & Wise Use for Akrotiri & Cape Pyla", at Akrotiri Environmental Education Centre. Elli Tzirkalli: Monitoring butterflies and moths in Akrotiri Peninsula Joanna Angelidou: Pollinators Monitoring Scheme Joanna Angelidou: Eleonora's falcon feeding grounds assessment Nicole Mavrovounioti: Red Book Plants within the SBA of Akrotiri and their pollinators Jakovos Demetriou: Raising public awareness on invasive non-native species and providing accessible, user-friendly online resources through the CyDAS
15/09/2022-03/10/2022: Mrs Alba Gomez Segura was visaed our laboratory to test the AMI moth trap in Akrotiri Peninsula.
10-11/06/2022: The workshop "Developing butterfly and moth monitoring in Cyprus as an element of an EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme" Will take place at the Cyprus Institute (NTL Events Room, 1st floor) on June 10th, 2022, in Nicosia,and it will be repeated at theAkrotiri Environmental Education Centre, on June 11th, 2022, in Limassol.
30/05/2022: We are all very proud and happy for the excellent presentation that Ms Katerina Athanasiou gave today to defend her BSc thesis. Katerina we wish you all the best in the future
29/05/2022: We are delighted to have three members of our team accepted for the course: Models in invasion ecology, challenges and applications at CIBIO, Portugal led by Dr Joana Vicente. We wish Joanna, Alkyoni and Maria a great course
20/05/2022: Delighted that Dr Maria Christou will undertake her Alien CSI stsm in Belgium working with the wonderful group of Danny Haelewaters and Joana Vicent in Portugal 01/05/2022: We would like to welcome Ms Nicole Mavrovounioti to our group. Nicole will be conducting a two year fellowship on the rare plants of Akrotiri and their pollinators in collaboration with Dr Marc Botham from the UKCEH 15-16/04/2022: Our team participated at sCYence Fair 2022 organised by the Cyprus Institute. 15/04/2022: Alkyoni Sfendouraki Basakarou just completed her AlienCSI stsm at the National and Kapodistrian university of Athens under the supervisiron of Dr Yiannis Bazos. Many thanks to Dr Bazos for helping us promote Fit Counts and Επικοινοιαζόμαστε! Well done Alkyoni!
26/03/2022-04/04/2022: We are delighted to have with us Evangelos Koutsoukos for his Alien CSI stsm on: "The presence of leaf pests in fig trees of Cyprus: Raising awareness and monitoring their presence and impacts with the help of citizen science"
07/03/2022-11/03/2022: What do entomologists do? Our team visited the school children of the Akrotiri School last week. Fantastic Experience for us meeting some inspiring young students
12/09/2021: You can find here the Ento21 Conference- abstracts of the presentations 21 by our lab, by Ioanna Angelidou, Katerina Athanasiou, Maria Christou and Jakovos Demetriou
01/08/2021-15/08/2021: Delighted to have with us for a STSM funded by CA17122 Alien CSI Dr Paraskevi Karachle from HCMR Greece who will be working on educational material for marine species that can negatively impact human health and good quality of life
22/07/2021: Dr Kelly Martinou will be giving a lecture on the mosquitoes of Cyprus at the Akrotiri Environmental Education Centre at 19:00. More info here
01/07/2021: We would like to welcome our two new Darwin Plus Research Fellows, Mrs Elli Tzirkalli (DPlus123) and Mr Jakovos Demetriou (DPlus124) who will be working with us in collaboration with UKCEH
01/06/2021: We are very excited about the new material developed for raising awareness about pollinators. You can find more info and find all the three mosquiteers leaflets here. We are very grateful to the COST Alien CSI action for funding this work
22/04/2021: We were delighted to host a Flower Insect Count event raising awareness about pollinators
08/4/2021: Dr Kelly Martinou was an invited speaker at the Alien CSI Early Career Investigators webinar that took place on the 8/4/2021. All the invited speakers spoke to Early Career Researchers on the importance of collaboration
1/4/2021: We are delighted to host in our laboratory Mr Jakovos Demetriou, MSc student at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens for a short term scientific mission funded by the CA 17122 Alien CSI. Jakovos will be working on updating the Cyprus Database of Alien Species
30/03/2021: Miss Joanna Angelidou wins the first award for her poster presentation at the UKOTs conference that took place between the 2-10 of March 2021. You can view her poster here. You can also view Miss Katerina 's Athanasiou poster which is also a winner in our hearts. Dr Martinou presented the Code of Practice for mosquito management in wetlands at the same conference
11/02/2021: Happy International Women in Science day!!
09/02/2021: We are delighted to see part of our Pollinators Monitoring Scheme featuring in this video by the European Commission 04/02/2021: We would like to welcome our new member Mr Jakovos Demetriou, MSc candidate at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, who will be working with us on non-native species.
01/02/2021: Many thanks to Nicolas Charilaou and Katerina Karatzi for promoting our citizen science programme for pollinators in Cyprus Επικονοιαζόμαστε in this video made by the European Commission. Find out why you should care about pollinators and what you can do about them.
17/11/2020: Miss Katerina Athanasiou BSc student at the Cyprus University of Technology, who did her summer practice with us participated at the UK Vector Borne Disease Conference 2020 with a poster presentation. Please view Katerina's poster here
3/11/2020: Dr Angeliki F Martinou has been elected for a Fellowship by the Royal Entomological Society of England. Congratulations!!
15/10/2020: Double celebration for our group today, Miss Joanna Angelidou had her MSc graduation ceremony and I received by 4* commendation award by General Sir Patrick Sanders KCB, CBE, DSO, ADC, Gen
28/09/2020: We are delighted to have with us Mr Konstantinos Tsirintanis, PhD Candidate at the University of the Aegean. Konstantinos will be helping us develop a citizen-science recording scemen for marin alien species for the Alien Mar.S project more soon...
30/08/2020: Miss Katerina Athanasiou has completed her practice with us and she is ready for the second part of her experiments at the Cyprus University of Technology. Looking forward to her results and we want to wish her a great academic year
25/08/2020: We are delighted to have with us Monsieur Francois Ducobu cameraman of ESN working for DG Environment European Commission making a videο on pollinators based on our Pollinators Monitoring Scheme of Kypros or Επικοινοιαζόμαστε. Many thanks to all the teen agers who participated Miss Panagiota and Katerina Karatzi, Miss Maria Savva and Mr Nicolas Charilaou. Many thanks to our colleagues Sophie Kamenoun and Koula Michael from AEEC, Mr Pantelis Charilaou and of course to Vakis Michael, AEEC, Katerina Athanasiou and Joanna Angelidou for organising the set up. Special thanks to Mr Stuart Roberts from BWARS, UK who recommended our work to the Commission
01/08/2020: Congratulations to Miss Joanna Angelidou for starting her Darwin Fellowship this August expected to be completed in 30/07/2022. Joanna will be working on the ecosystem services provided by the Akrotiri wetland Joanna is jointly supervised Professor Helen Roy and Dr Francesca Mancini at UKCEH and by Dr Kelly Martinou, JSHU.
22/06/2020: We are delighted to have with us Miss Katerina Athanasiou from the Cyprus University of Technology for her 6 weeks practice in vector ecology
02/06/2020: You can read the Applied Ecologist's blog regarding our recent publication on a mosquito code of practice for European wetlands here
19/05/2020: Many thanks to Alpha tv for inviting Dr Kelly Martinou to speak about mosquitoes and how to protect ourselves. You can see the interview here 15/05/2020: Meet The Three Mosquiteers, a story explaining to children (and not only) the basics about mosquitoes and how to protect ourselves and others from them. I hope you love it as much as we do. Many thanks @COSTprogramme for funding this work, @FSCpublications and Dr Rebecca Farley-Brown for the wonderful production and @UKladybirds Professor Helen Roy for her love and trust in this project 01/05/2020: Lovely to see moments from the AIM COST field training course that our laboratory organised and hosted back in February in Akrotiri. You can see more here
14/04/2020: A blog regarding our Darwin initiative project higlighting Joanna's work
13/03/2020: Due to the COVID-19, Dr Mihaela Kavran's presentation on her West Nile Virus work in Serbia was limited to our group. You can find the presentation here
08/03/2020: We are delighted to have with us Dr Mihaela Kavran for a STSM. Dr Kavran will be working with Dr Martinou on the: "Synthesis of the Pan-European Survey and increasing our understanding regarding integrated vector management approaches". Dr Kavran will be funded by AIM COST CA 17108
13/02/2020: Dr Kelly Martinou presented in Lisbon at the 2nd AIM COST Committee Management and Conference meeting their work on: "Mosquitoes without borders!".A first attempt for citizen science and mosquitoes in Cyprus. Introduction to the Aedes watch out network by Yetismis K, Erguler K, Angelidou I, Yetismis S, Martinou AF and many lovely volunteers. Photo here
4-7/2/2020: Our collaborator Dr Kamil Erguler, Cyprus Institute will be presenting a poster at the 11th conference of dynamical systems applied to biology and natural sciences, DSABNS | Università degli Studi di in Trento, Italy. You can see the poster here
27-29/01/2020: Dr Martinou partcipated in the Invasive Alien Species Wikithon workshop funded by CA 17122 Alien CSI at the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Agriculture Krakow Poland 13-17/01/2020: We are delighted to be hosting the 1st TRAINING SCHOOL funded by COST Action CA 17108 : Harmonizing Aedes Invasive Mosquito (AIM) surveillance across Europe from the 13-17 January 2020 Akrotiri Cyprus - For more information click here
04/01/2020: Dr AF Martinou is the new Deputy Editor in Chief at the Journal of Bioinvasions records responsible for the theme of terrestrial bioninvasions.
27-29/11/2019: We are delighted to host an international workshop that aims to horizon scan invasive species with an impact on human health and the economy and looking at the impacts of invasive species on nature's contribution to people. The workshop is funded by the Darwin programme: Addressing the drivers of change around the Akrotiri Salt lake and we run it in collaboration with our fantastic colleagues from CEH
18-22/11/2019: Dr AF Martinou will be attending the 1st European workshop on testing procedures for monitoring and managing insecticide resistance in invasive mosquitoes from November 18-22, 2019 at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Montpellier, France. Organized jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and IRD through the WIN initiative, this workshop aims to strengthen country capacities in conducting routine insecticide resistance monitoring at national level. For more information click here
14/11/2019: Miss Joanna Angelidou hosted at the Laboratory of Vector Ecology and Applied Entomology for the past 9 months successfully defended her MSc thesis project undertaken at the Akrotiri wetland and got the maximum grade 'Αριστα!! Welldone Joanna and many thanks to Professor Helen Roy and the CEH team who supported her thesis as well as her examiners at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
24-25/10/2019: Dr AF Martinou led the CA 17108 AIM COST meeting in Novi Sad in collaboration with Dr Willy Wint, hosted by Dusan Petric and an excellent team who is working on the analysis of the Pan-European survey on mosquito surveillance and control
23-24 /09/2019: Dr AF Martinou and Miss Joanna Angelidou attended COST Action CA17122 Alien CSI | MC and WG Meeting Programme | Ljubljana , Slovenia . Local organizer : Maarten DE Groot.
24/09/2019: Miss Joanna Angelidou presented her STSM results from her visit at CEH, UK and her project on the Pollinators Monitoring Scheme of Kypros (POMS-Ky) funded by the Darwin initiative during the MC and WG Meeting Programme | Ljubljana , Slovenia . Local organizer : Maarten DE Groot.
09/09/2019: We are delighted to have with us on short term scientific mission funded by COST Action 17122 AlienCSI Dr Gábor Vétek, Associate Professor at the Szent István University. In collaboration with Dr Vétek we have initiated a citizen science programme in Cyprus- Bug Alert Cyprus- on the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB). BMSB is an invasive pest of many crops and we need to catch it at early stage of its introduction if it arrives on the island. If you wish to find more about Bug Alert Cyprus, participate and provide information please press here for English or Greek in order to find out more.
03/08/2019: Dr Kelly Martinou has been nominated and selected in order to be a lead author for Chapter 4 of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) thematic assessment of invasive alien species and their control ("the assessment of invasive alien species"). The project will last three years and the 1st Meeting is in Tsukuba Japan 19-23 of August 2019.
28/07/2019: Moth Celebration - Γιορτή Νυχτοπεταλούδας 28/7/2019 was great fun! Adults but also children enjoyed the moth trapping. Many special thanks to Marios Philippou, Graham Johstone, James Woodley, Joanna Angelidou and Ailsa Snaith and to Christodoulos Makris for joining us and identifying moths with us and to all of you who attended the event.
25/07/2019: Miss Joanna Angelidou has completed her two weeks Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) funded by COST Action Alien CSI CA 17122, at CEH, Wallingford Oxford, UK with Dr Francesca Mancini and Professor Helen Roy, where she learnt statistical modelling in order to analyse citizen-science data collected during the Pollinators Monitoring Scheme of Kypros, A Darwin initiative project, and participated in seminars on citizen science. 14/04/2019: Miss Kardelen Yetişmiş, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey completed her Short Term Scientific Mission in our Laboratory funded by COST Action CA 17122 Alien CSI. The STSM title was: Mosquitos without borders – Going Island wide in Cyprus and took place between 17/03/2019 to 13/04/2019. Kardelen was jointly hosted by us and Dr Kamil Erguler at the Cyprus Institute and the aim of her STSM was to initiate a mosquito citizen-science project in North of Cyprus. Kardelen has succesfully established a wonderful network of volunteers the Aedes Watch Out Network! you can find out more about the team at http://mosquitoeswithoutborders.com/
05/03/2019: Mr Stuart Roberts, BWARS UK completed his Short Term Scientific Mission STSM funded by COST Action CA17122 Alien CSI in our laboratory. Mr Roberts' stsm had with the title Bee Understanding and Communicating and lasted between the 23/02/2019 to 04/03/2019. The purpose of Mr Roberts' STSM was: to investigate the impact of non-native and native plants on pollinator species richness through, data recording (both before and during the BioBlitz sessions), to train Cypriot researchers and teachers on the identification of solitary bees and other pollinators and to raise awareness of solitary bees and other pollinators through development and use of the PoMS-Ky and Mini PoMS-ky monitoring programmes.
27-28th of February 2019: First every Bioblitz was organised in Cyprus hosted by Dr AF Martinou in Akrotiri. You can find more information here
08/12/2018: Mr Neo Andreou has completed his course at the the University of Malta: Titled: IOI training programme on regional ocean governance for the Mediterranean, Black, Baltic and Caspian Seas which took place place from the 5th of November-7th of December 2018. Mr Andreou had the opportunity to present our Ris-Ky project to all the participants of the training school.
18-20 April 2018: We run a very successful workshop on native and non-native vector management in the Easter Mediterranean and the Middle East. Major James Fawcett OC of the Joint Services Health Unit provides an overview at the following press release.
22-26/05/2017: Dr AF Martinou presented a poster at the Third FAO/IAEA International Conference on Area-Wide Management of Insect Pests: Integrating the Sterile Insect and Related Nuclear and Other techniques in IAEA, Vienna Austria. Her poster presentation had the title: Mosquito Surveillance and Control: Challenges Management and Opportunities in Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) in Cyprus and Overseas Territories
29-30/11/2016: Dr Angeliki Martinou presented at the Vector borne diseases in the UK, biennial conference that took place at the University of Liverpool a talk on the challenges for management and opportunities for research in Sovereign Base Areas in Cypus and overseas territories
18-22/07/2016: Dr AF Martinou was chairing a session on invasive alien species on islands together with Dr Jan Pergl at the II Island Biology Conference on island evolution, ecology an Conservation, at the University of the Azores at Angra Do Heroismo, Terceira island, Azores, Portugal. She was also an invited speaker at this conference and her talk was on the analysis of the impacts of invasive alien species in an island context. Complications for management