MAIA Project: Leveraging Climate Research to Create Impact

Climate change is a pressing issue that demands immediate attention and concerted efforts to mitigate its effects and adapt to them. Horizon Europe and Horizon2020 programs have funded several research projects that aim to tackle climate change adaptation and mitigation challenges. However, the results of these projects are often fragmented, making it challenging for a broader audience to access and utilize them effectively. That’s where MAIA comes in.

MAIA is a Horizon Europe project that acts as an impact multiplier for climate research projects funded under Horizon Europe and Horizon2020 programs. It brings together the experience of several carefully curated Horizon 2020 projects that focus on innovation for climate resilience, including BINGO, BRIGAID, CLARITY, Connecting Nature, DRIVER+, PLACARD, and RESCCUE. The primary objective of MAIA is to make the current dispersed knowledge more interoperable, accessible, and usable and to render the outcomes economically sustainable.

Climate change adaptation and mitigation are complex problems that require a systemic approach in coordination with changes in beliefs and behaviors of citizens and organizations. These changes are more likely to happen when individuals and stakeholders are engaged in participatory processes and can access, internalize and act upon the right information to understand actual hazards, potential scenarios, benefits of acting, and existing windows of opportunity. MAIA aims to create a social and technological structure that will enable this to happen.

MAIA is not just about making research outcomes more accessible; it is also about creating an economic ecosystem that will maximize the impact of climate research. This will involve creating social and technological structures as well as an active outreach campaign to engage stakeholders in participatory processes that will enable them to access, understand, and act upon the research outcomes.

The project aims to achieve its objectives by providing several services, including an open-access platform that will make the research outcomes available to a broader audience, a system that will facilitate data interoperability, tools to support decision-making, and capacity building for stakeholders. The project will also create an active outreach campaign that will engage stakeholders and facilitate knowledge transfer, communication, and collaboration between researchers and stakeholders.

In conclusion, the MAIA project is a vital initiative that seeks to maximize the impact of climate research by creating an economic ecosystem that will enable stakeholders to access, understand, and act upon the research outcomes. The project will create social and technological structures as well as an active outreach campaign to engage stakeholders in participatory processes that will facilitate knowledge transfer, communication, and collaboration between researchers and stakeholders.

Ultimately, this will help create a more sustainable future for all.