Models, Assessment, and Policies for Sustainability (MAPS)

Start date: 1 June 2024
End date: 31 May 2028
Value: €3,829,180.00
Partners and collaborators: Universitat de Barcelona, Spain Universita di Pisa, Italy Institute for Future-Fit Economies, Germany IST-ID Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento Tampere University, Finland Wirtschaftsuniversitat Wien Corvinus University Budapest University Of Surrey
Primary investigator: Professor Milena Büchs
External primary investigator: University of Barcelona, Spain
Postgraduate students: Thomas Webb

Project goal

The project’s aim is to explore transformative policy pathways that achieve equitable human wellbeing while respecting Earth’s environmental limits, and assess these using a state-of-the-art simulation model.

Context

The lack of evidence for sufficient decoupling between economic growth and environmental pressures suggests that future trajectories built on economic growth may not be possible. At the same time, the pursuit of economic growth is failing to improve people’s lives in European nations. There is an urgent need for a new paradigm that reconciles human wellbeing with environmental sustainability. A paradigm that could potentially reconcile these objectives is post-growth.
Post-growth includes approaches such as degrowth, Doughnut economics, a wellbeing economy, and a steady-state economy. The idea is that high-income countries should move beyond the pursuit of GDP growth as a policy goal, and instead pursue policies that directly improve human wellbeing while reducing resource use.

Approach

MAPS uses participatory approaches and co-creation with policymakers and researchers to explore post-growth pathways and inform real-world decision-making. The simulation model that the project is developing goes beyond conventional models and includes a holistic set of environmental, social, and economic indicators. The project engages with the latest advances in artificial intelligence, both in the scenarios it considers, and the models it develops.

By providing research-backed policy scenarios, assessments, and modelling tools, the MAPS project aims to help facilitate a shift towards a new economic paradigm for the 21st century. The project identifies post-growth policies that are not only politically feasible and socio-economically sound but also enjoy public support. MAPS strives to provide decision makers with the knowledge and tools to build a better future, where a good life for all is achieved within the environmental limits of our planet.

Impact

For impact information please visit https://mapsresearch.eu/project/

Publications and outputs

For publications and further information please visit https://mapsresearch.eu/project/

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Project website

https://mapsresearch.eu/project/

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