Maria Cañas is Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology and Research Methodology at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from UPV/EHU (2021), awarded with the Extraordinary Doctorate Prize, and completed a two-year postdoctoral stay at the CAARE Center (Child and Adolescent Abuse Resource and Evaluation Diagnostic and Treatment Center) at UC Davis Medical Center (California, USA), working on the assessment and treatment of children exposed to maltreatment and chronic trauma.

Her research has developed along two complementary lines: the cultural adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based programs for children and families in situations of vulnerability, and the validation of assessment instruments for use in research and clinical practice. At UC Davis, she contributed to the culturally sensitive adaptation of evidence-based programs for Latino families and to the training of Spanish-speaking practitioners. In Spain, she has collaborated with public administrations across five autonomous communities on the development of assessment tools and intervention guidelines within child protection systems.

Within the IDenti-T network, Maria aims to contribute the perspective of an applied researcher working with children and families in vulnerable situations, populations whose identities, family bonds, and cultural belongings are often shaped, mediated, and at times hierarchised by institutional decisions and protection systems. She is interested in how interdisciplinary dialogue can enrich the ways in which research, clinical practice, and public policy address the rights, recognition, and wellbeing of those who occupy structurally vulnerable positions, particularly children and families in situations of social vulnerability.