Catalina-Alexandra Papari is a PhD candidate in Sustainable Finance and Innovation at the Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) and the Faculty of Economics and Business at KU Leuven. In her doctoral thesis, Catalina will focus on mechanisms aiming at scaling up green innovations (renewable energy technologies, management innovations, or biodiversity) and the associated sustainable finance solutions from niche - to mainstream actors.  She is also co-leading the Financing Biodiversity - Pathways to Sustainability project providing expertise on two working packages: Nature targets-setting and Impact Finance for biodiversity for institutional investors and asset managers.
 
Previously, Catalina followed an MSc in Economic Policy at the faculty of Law, Governance and Economics from Utrecht University and a BSc in International Business and Economics from Bucharest University of Economic Studies. Before her PhD, Catalina worked in the EU finance sphere as a Policy and EU Partnerships Associate at Impact Europe. She started her journey in Brussels in 2019 working at the European Commission in Directorate-General Regional and Urban Policy, mainly focusing on simplifying the Cohesion Policy and European Regional Development Fund.