MAIA (Mapping and Assessment for Integrated ecosystem Accounting) aims to mainstream natural capital and ecosystem accounting (NCA) in EU member states. MAIA uses the System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA) as the methodological basis for NCA. The SEEA EEA provides a consistent framework for analysing and storing information on ecosystem assets and flows of ecosystem services, in both physical and monetary units. The SEEA EEA follows a spatial approach, requiring extensive (spatial) data and models as inputs into the accounts. In MAIA, a flexible approach will be followed, allowing for adaptation of the SEEA EEA framework to the conditions of individual EU countries. In particular, MAIA will: (i) assess policy priorities for accounting; (ii) test, pilot and mainstream NCA in 10 countries; (iii) test innovative approaches for NCA in the European context; and (iv) support NCA in the EU through various communication and dissemination activities including the development of guidelines, a web-based information system and other facilitating actions. MAIA will involve in-country work in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain but there will be outreach to all EU member states through exchanging data, guidelines and experiences. The MAIA consortium includes a balanced mix of partners with backgrounds in statistics, ecological modelling and environmental economics, including three statistical agencies. In addition, MAIA has 18 supporting partners including statistical and other government agencies in 10 countries. Institutes with more experience will mentor and assist those with less experience. MAIA partners are involved in a range of other initiatives such as the SEEA London Group, MAES, ESMERALDA and IPBES, and includes partners supporting KIP INCA, which will facilitate exchanging experiences. Overall coordination of MAIA is with Wageningen University.

GLOBALINTO will provide new measures of intangible assets at the firm level, filling an important gap in measurement which has restricted statistical production, micro-based analysis and evidence-based policymaking. GLOBALINTO will analyse the various potential explanations of the productivity puzzle, both at micro and macro levels. Our work will bring further the earlier work by the EU FP7 Innodrive project to create refined and validated intangible capital data and indicators that can be implemented in official statistics production. Importantly, this also includes the development of measures of public sector intangibles and their impact on innovation and productivity. The analyses in GLOBALINTO are novel, focusing not only on firm behaviour at the micro level but by also being able to observe the common growth characteristics in industries and the role of intangibles for changes in market structure. Broader measurement of intangibles (in particular non-R&D) at the firm level helps to identify new sources of growth to reverse the trend of lower intangible capital deepening after financial crises in 2008. Knowledge on human and intangible capital at the firm-level also helps to promote new intangible capital formation under the ageing population. Such a micro data approach is by definition necessary also in the effort to understand the role of small firms as engines of growth and hindrances for market entry. The analysis also aims to show the global structure and fragmentation of value chains, and their role in innovation, knowledge diffusion and the exploitation of new knowledge. On the basis of empirical results and theoretical advances, GLOBALINTO will also explore and further the role of policy for the mobilisation of intangibles. The ambition of GLOBALINTO is not only to assess productivity potential but to decompose its explanatory factors in a way that offer tools for policies to foster innovation and future growth.