Heat stress resilient maize for South Asia is a public-private partnership project that brings together public and private institutions with required expertise and complementary strengths for deciphering heat stress tolerance for maize in tropical maize germplasm and utilizing these information towards obtaining tangible outputs. The project aims to build on the elite, abiotic stress tolerant maize germplasm base of CIMMYT; the technical expertise of key resource partners (CIMMYT, Purdue University and Pioneer Hi-Bred) for applying innovative technologies for accelerated development of climate resilient maize germplasm; the maize breeding and phenotyping locations of NARS partners; the seed production capacity, strong linkages to the farming communities, and the market reach of the private sector partners (Corteva agriscience, Ajeet Seeds and Kaveri Seeds, Ankur Seeds), for effectively developing and deploying heat stress resilient, high yielding maize hybrids with potential impact on the maize-dependent and climate change vulnerable regions in South Asia. The initiative is funded by USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and led by CIMMYT.