NATUREFIN Project Debuts with Kick-off Meeting in Hungary
Budapest, June 2025 – The project NATUREFIN officially kicked off with a dynamic three-day meeting in Budapest and Kaposvar, in Hungary, bringing together project partners, and invited sustainable finance experts and research team from Corvinus University of Budapest.
The first day market the kick-off meeting, hosted by Corvinus University of Budapest. The event debuted the four-year joint work under the Interreg Europe programme, aiming to support municipalities in better integrating biodiversity and ecosystem service values into their financial planning and public policy through sustainable finance tools. Participants from six European countries gathered in a hybrid event, to co-design strategies for embedding nature-based thinking into regional development plans, and to attract green finance.
The kickoff meeting featured interactive workshops, sustainable finance presentations, and site visits. Partners shared the current state of sustainability efforts in their regions and identified common challenges—such as water stress, land-use pressures, and biodiversity loss—that could benefit from nature-based financial innovations. A special policy session focused on the " Do No Significant Harm" principle and "Taxonomy aligned activities, and its role in sustainable finance frameworks.
One of the highlights of the event was a site visit to local businesses in the food industry, where participants witnessed first-hand the ecosystem dependencies that influence regional economies. The project also launched a collaborative photo contest to engage families and children, highlighting the human dimension of environmental transformation.
Helena Naffa, principal investigator and Director of the Sustainable Finance Research Centre at Corvinus University, emphasised the project’s ambition:
“NATUREFIN is not just about integrating biodiversity into financial models—it’s about transforming how regions perceive and value nature in everyday governance. Our kickoff has laid a strong foundation for building these capabilities together.”
The next steps for the project will be to lay out the roadmap for the upcoming project activities, including policy co-creation, financial laboratory simulations, peer learning exchanges, and a joint communication strategy to foster broader stakeholder engagement.