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Helen Toxopeus is an Associate Professor at Utrecht University with a focus on finance, innovation, and sustainability. With 20 years of experience across the banking sector, United Nations, grassroots networks, and European research projects, she has developed expertise in business economics, particularly in financing sustainable innovation. She obtained her PhD in 2019 from Erasmus University Rotterdam, where she specialized in impactful collaborative scholarship in business strategy and financing sustainability. Her empirical work emphasizes Urban Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and urban regeneration within the circular economy. Toxopeus has participated in European Horizon projects such as NATURVATION and HUB-IN, contributing to the development of tools and business models for financing transitions and enabling collective action. Currently, she co-leads the Horizon Europe project NATURESCAPES, focusing on co-finance and co-governance in (peri-)urban landscapes, while involving marginalized actors in NBS initiatives. Additionally, she is engaged in the REGENL project for financing the transition to regenerative agriculture and the EMPOWERED project on finance and business models for heat transition in Dutch cities. As a board member of the Sustainable Finance Lab, she aims to transform the financial sector to better support sustainability transitions and serves as a co-lead for the Transforming Cities strategic theme at Utrecht University, integrating research with education and policy development on national and international levels.
Department of Psychology