Maria Fraaije

 
Researcher
+31 (0)10-408 8887
fraaije@drift.eur.nl
 
Maria is a researcher, passionate about combining academic- and design-thinking to democratize the energy transition. Using a systems-perspective, she asks the question: how can we facilitate energy prosumers in their contribution to the energy transition? To tackle this question, she’s is currently working on EU-funded projects PROSEU and SONNET, where she investigates energy prosumers and social innovations in the energy transition.
 
Maria holds a MSc in Industrial Ecology from the TU Delft and Leiden university, and a BSc in biomedical sciences from Leiden University, with a minor in Sustainable Development. During her MSc Industrial Ecology, she specialized in the electricity market and local energy cooperatives, graduating with a mixed-methods research on agent-based modeling of energy cooperatives. Before working at DRIFT she worked as a freelancer for Cirkelstad, and the TU Delft, where she assisted on a course on creative facilitation. Besides her academic career, Maria has been trained as an illustrator and designer at the Willem de Kooning and a creative facilitator at the TU Delft. Thus, she often asks herself: how can I visualize this, and how can I facilitate others to think outside the box?
 
Maria is always eager to try out a new hobby, and after work you’ll most likely find her sketching, or in the climbing gym.