María Máñez Costa works at the Climate Service Center Hamburg and leads the work on system dynamics modelling. She is trained as a physical geographer with a PhD in agricultural economics.
She applies system thinking and analysis to support climate services development. María is an expert in participatory modelling and has been working in the last 20 years on the development of participatory processes and models. Her research focuses on innovative transdisciplinary approaches to support the transitions to resilient societies. Her work repeatedly lies at the interface between science and society. Topic-wise, María works on adaptation themes as water management under drought conditions, urban resilience, agri-environmental services, or nature based solutions. María has been involved in the development of the field of climate services since 2009.

Since the academic year 2013, she is a visiting professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and teaches Participatory Modelling and System Dynamics successfully. She also supervises PhDs and Master Students in different institutions.