Catalina Papari
PhD Candidate
Catalina-Alexandra Papari is a PhD candidate in Sustainable Finance and Innovation at the Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 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 biodiveristy) and the associated sustainable finance solutions from niche - to mainstream actors.
Previously, Catalina followed an MSc in Economic Policy at the faculty of Law, Governance and Economics from Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 and a BSc in International Business and Economics from Bucharest 木瓜福利影视 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.
In the long run, Catalina strives to contribute with her knowledge to a more sustainable and green global economy with better social outcomes and reduced poverty gaps. She finds the joint Ph.D. U.S.E. and KULeuven in Sustainable Finance and Innovation a perfect tool to do so, working closely with Helen Toxopeus, Friedemann Polzin, Kees Koedijk and Alessandro Diego Scopelliti.