SIPA’s Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) Announces New Partnerships on Blended Finance
The Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) announced a new research and programming initiative that will help develop and scale up the global marketplace for blended finance. The mitigation of climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, and other global challenges has historically been financed through a mixture of public funding and private philanthropic giving. Yet, a large financing gap remains, especially in the Global South. The key question is: how can we crowd in more private capital to finance innovative solutions in climate tech, renewable energy, nature-based solutions, and social inclusion, especially in the Global South, where capital is most needed?
To better understand these and other challenges, as well as identify the opportunities in mobilizing more private capital investments, the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) will serve as a global hub for dialogue, scholarship, and education on the subject of blended finance. In blended finance, private capital is “blended” with public or philanthropic capital, whose aim is to subsidize and de-risk private capital.
SIRI is thrilled to announce new academic partnerships and sponsorship support from Mirova and the Systems Impact Multi-Family Office (SIMFO). Mirova, is an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers dedicated to sustainable investing. Mirova’s multi-year partnership with SIRI around blended finance is part of its newly created Mirova Research Center (MRC), which aims to accelerate the funding of research on responsible investment. SIMFO is chaired by Vincent Shen, who also leads the SZUCHI Angel Private Equity Fund. Under his leadership, SIMFO is dedicated to advancing and shaping the field of systems impact investing, with a strong focus on creating meaningful, sustainable change.
The director of SIRI, Caroline Flammer, will lead these efforts. Flammer is SIPA’s vice dean for research and faculty affairs, and the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics at Columbia University, with joint appointments at SIPA and the Columbia Climate School, and a secondary appointment at the Columbia Business School.
“Blended finance has the potential to be catalytic and help close the financing gaps our world is facing to effectively address climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, food security, and other grand societal challenges,” Flammer said. “Yet, while the practice of blended finance is not novel, expertise in blended finance is currently limited not only among investment professionals but also among academics.”
“Efforts to foster rigorous academic research, dialogue across the entire range of capital providers, and education at all levels is needed because of this,” she added. “This is precisely the focus and motivation of SIRI's blended finance efforts. I am deeply grateful for the support and partnership of Mirova and SIMFO in launching this initiative.”
The aims of this initiative and partnership are to foster academic research that is rigorous to gain deeper insights into best practices, opportunities, and limitations of blended finance. The initiative will also provide a platform for dialogue among key stakeholders from the public and private sectors, including policymakers, investors, and academics and contribute to educating current and future generations of private, public, and philanthropic investors.
SIRI hosted its Inaugural SIRI Blended Finance Decisionmakers Roundtable Discussion in April 2024. Upcoming events include the second-annual SIRI Blended Finance Decision-makers Roundtable Discussion, with a focus on India, and the Inaugural SIRI Blended Finance Conference. Both events will take place in September at Columbia University during NYC Climate Week.
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About the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative:
The mission of the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative at Columbia SIPA is to foster scholarship, education, and dialogue on system-level investing. SIRI’s activities focus on the development of better measures to track progress toward the mitigation of system-level challenges; the fostering of rigorous academic scholarship on system-level investing; improving dialogue by convening and hosting leaders from academia, policy, the public and private sector; the development of new courses and extracurricular activities to educate the next generation of leaders in policy, investment, and business; and executive education to educate the current generation of leaders. These pillars aim to complement, inform, and mutually reinforce each other.
About Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs:
For more than 75 years, SIPA has been educating professionals who work in public, private, and nonprofit organizations to make a difference in the world. Through rigorous research and hands-on practice, SIPA’s graduates and faculty strive to improve public policy, advocate for human rights, strengthen markets, protect the environment, and secure peace in their home communities and worldwide. For more information, please visit sipa.columbia.edu.
About Mirova:
Mirova is a global asset management company dedicated to sustainable investing and an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers. At the forefront of sustainable finance for over a decade, Mirova has been developing innovative investment solutions across all asset classes, aiming to combine long term value creation with positive environmental and social impact. Headquartered in Paris, Mirova offers a broad range of equity, fixed income, multi-asset, energy transition infrastructure, natural capital and private equity solutions designed for institutional investors, distribution platforms and retail investors in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific.
About Mirova Research Center:
The Mirova Research Center (MRC) is the research center of excellence initiated by Mirova in order to contribute to academic research on responsible finance. MRC aims to financially support long-term research projects, facilitate exchanges between the academic world and the financial industry, and propose innovative investment solutions. MRC's objective is to fund research on particularly innovative topics with a strong societal impact that are not sufficiently addressed in existing academic literature through three main axes: finance and planetary boundaries, impact indicators for a just transition, and the contribution of investors to sustainable development goals.
About SIMFO:
The Systems Impact Multi-Family Office (SIMFO) was established to develop the field of systems impact investing. SMFO is a system’s change company that aims to bring conveners, innovators and funders together to create transformational change towards a regenerative world through regenerative capital. It partners with business, finance, civil society, and government to catalyze systems change towards a regenerative and inclusive economy. Combining systems design, community building, and blended finance, SIMFO aims to help stakeholders shift from silo-thinking to collective action in climate change, systems education, creative culture, and regenerative finance.