Maria Holzinger-Spencer

Biography

Maria Holzinger is a researcher in the Integrated Climate Impacts Research Group of the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program. Motivated by the pressing challenges of climate change, her work sits at the interface of science and policy, spanning stakeholder engagement, policy analysis, and science communication to bridge research and decision-making for diverse audiences.

Currently, she is a Stakeholder Engagement Expert in the Horizon Europe RESCUE project, where she designs engagement processes and facilitates science–policy dialogue around Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). From 2022 to 2025, she played a key role in coordinating the Second Austrian Assessment Report on Climate Change (AAR2), and facilitating the associated stakeholder engagement and communication activities.

Prior to her science–policy work at IIASA, Holzinger worked as a study engineer at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRAE) in Montpellier, where she investigated genotype x environment interactions in agricultural crops in relation to heat and drought tolerance. Her broader research addressed crop genetics, agro-biodiversity, and food security, in collaboration with international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and CGIAR, as well as French state research institutes CIRAD and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD).

She holds an MSc in Plant Sciences (Plant Genetics) from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and a BSc in Biology (Ecology) from the University of Vienna in Austria.


Last update: 24 APR 2026