Interdisciplinary approach

The introduction of new financing instruments in the NBS infrastructure requires parallel scientific breakthroughs across disciplines. Our research develops five multidisciplinary lines of enquiry, ensuring a holistic and critical approach to developing new business cases. We develop an inter- and transdisciplinary understanding of alternative financing of nature-based solutions through close interaction between experts, practitioners and researchers from different disciplines.

Alternative financing instruments also require a different way of dealing with economic feasibility assessments. We explicitly consider the costs and benefits of each nature-based solution and how they affect its ability to be funded. In addition, we explicitly recognise the relevance of non-monetary characteristics by applying discrete-choice experiments to quantify which characteristics of the NBS and financial instruments are most crucial for willingness to finance.

Traditional models of public financing contain strong mechanisms for public accountability. When responsibilities in projects are shared between public organisations, private companies and civic initiatives, accountability relationships can become more diffuse. InnoFiNS examines how accountability can be organised and how trust can be guaranteed between citizens, public authorities and private players in these hybrid forms of governance.

A stable legal framework is a prerequisite for attracting new investors. For innovative financing instruments, this framework is often insufficiently clear. InnoFiNS assesses the current legal context of proposed instruments and analyses to what extent we can improve the legal framework for these instruments, taking into account the specificities of NBS projects.

Nature-based solutions are often characterised by contributing to societal challenges. However, there is also the risk that their private financing could create new negative social problems by e.g. contributing to gentrification or unequal access to public infrastructures. The anticipated positive and negative social impacts of the various financing instruments are mapped within InnoFiNS.

Classic planning and design methods are characterised by a strong separation between plan making and its implementation with a steering role for the government. Alternative financing methods require a more flexible approach based on co-creation, where a wide range of stakeholders and potential (private) investors are involved in the whole planning and implementation process and plan making and implementation become more intertwined.