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Helen Toxopeus van de Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ School of Economics won met een vurige pitch over verkoeling en watermanagement in steden de Pathways to Sustainability Award 2020 voor al haar collega's in het NATURVATION-project. Dit Europese project wordt geleid door professor Harriet Bulkeley. Daarnaast werken ook nog verschillende andere onderzoekers van de Universiteit Utrecht aan NATURVATION.

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Nature-based solutions are for example green roofs and city parks that limit heat stress, city lagoons that store water and permeable surfaces, vegetation and rain gardens to intercept storm water. They benefit nature and there are business models for implementing these solutions.  won the award by public vote on the Pathways to Sustainability Conference 2020 of Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, after first being selected in a top 3 by a jury out of 18 nominations. The Pathways to Sustainability Award comes with €2500,- to further invest in the project or its follow-up.

Team up with stakeholders

The top 3 were selected because they reflected the rich practices of transdisciplinarity research on sustainability at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ and are combining their research with the agendas of external stakeholders. NATURVATION for example is partners with - among others - the Newcastle City Council, Malmö City, the Dutch Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, the Catalan ENT Foundation, the German Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, and the City of Utrecht.​

The other two selected projects for the Pathways to Sustainability Award 2020 were Smart Solar Charging (Project leader: and SustaIndus: Science to support the SDGs and sustainable water management in the transboundary Indus river basin (Project leader: Prof Walter Immerzeel)

Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ in NATURVATION

Several Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ researchers are involved in the 4-year NATURVATION project, carried out at 14 institutions across Europe. Next to environmental governance professor Harriet Bulkeley and economist dr. Helen Toxopeus, they are:

• Postdoctoral researcher, environmental governance/innovation studies  dr. Sander van der Jagt

• Governance of Nature and Biodiversity professor Hens Runhaar
• Institutions and Societal Transitions   professor Rob Raven
• Economist dr. Friedemann Polzin
• PhD Candidate in environmental governance/innovation studies  Hade Dorst
• Economics of Global Environmental Change professor Wouter Botzen
• Postdoctoral researcher, economist Marija Bockarjova

MOOC: Urban Nature

Recently, Lund ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, Durham ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ and Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, all part of NATURVATION published a MOOC (massive free online open course) at Coursera, called Urban Nature, Connecting Cities, Nature and Innovations. Helen Toxopeus and Harriet Bulkely are teachers in this MOOC. This course explores nature-based solutions in cities in Europe and around the world.