The 3D Pollen Project Knowledge Exchange Fellowship

Pollen is vital to the natural world, and to the sciences which research it. Pollen grains' immensely tough shells are marvels of biochemistry; their varied and beautiful patterns arise through fundamental physics. Fossil pollen bears witness to many millions of years of plant evolution, climate change and ecosystem dynamics. Modern pollen separates species and solves crimes, and may soon genetically engineer plants, improve vaccines and administer drugs. The flow of pollen, and the genetic material carried within, underpins all ecosystems on land: it is both an immeasurably valuable, globally critical ecosystem service and a nuisance, a major human allergen.

Engaging non-specialists with pollen-related research can be challenging, though - not least because pollen is microscopic. This means any interactions with pollen must be visual, either through 2D images or specialist microscopy, neither of which fully convey the grains' 3D shapes, beauty or patterning. The 3D Pollen Project allows people to interact with pollen in entirely new ways, producing accurate, larger-than-life models that allow audiences to hold these microscopic marvels in their hands - bringing close the world of pollen and the multiple research fields which investigate its many functions.

To date, the 3D Pollen Project has produced scans and models of 35 species - the largest open access collection of 3D pollen data in the world. Its files have been downloaded several thousand times by academic and non-academic users, with outputs used extensively for public engagement, teaching and research activities around the world. However, those 35 species represent only a tiny, biased fraction of the planet's pollen diversity: a larger, more representative collection would be revolutionary for the communication and public understanding of pollen research with wider audiences.

Building on the 3D Pollen Project's early successes, this fellowship will create an unparalleled, globally relevant resource for pollen-related public engagement, with secondary benefits for teaching and research. Combining long-established natural history collections and advanced microscopy, a targeted approach will build a diversely representative, open-access collection of 2D pollen scans and 3D model files that is at least an order of magnitude larger than any that currently exists. As well as facilitating and supporting public engagement by researchers around the world, this fellowship's outputs will be directly used to educate, empower, and enhance participation in two key pollen-related research topics - palaeoecology and pollination - among communities in the UK and Brazil.

This fellowship will work with RHS Garden Harlow Carr to educate schoolchildren (including from communities Harlow Carr has identified as 'hard to reach') and other visitors about pollination as an ecosystem service and wildflowers' importance to insect pollinators. Incorporating the Garden's recently installed apiary and meadow area, a digital and physical '3D pollen trail' will educate visitors about 'pro-pollinator' garden management - and empower them to make positive changes.

Also in the UK, the fellowship will facilitate knowledge exchange between researchers and land managers at Natural England's Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve. Citizen science workshops will use 3D pollen teaching resources to help train volunteers in key palaeoecological skills, growing and broadening Natural England's participation base, and eventually empowering volunteer 'para-palaeoecologists' to undertake elements of palaeo-environmental research independently.

Finally, in southern Brazil, this fellowship will use pollen models to begin shared conversations between researchers and Indigenous communities, bringing together traditional ecological knowledge and scientific research in a 'participatory palaeoecology' to better understand the landscape's past, present and future human-environment dynamics.