GRASFI 2021: Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment Annual Conference 2021 September 1-3, 2021

The 4^th Annual GRASFI Conference is being planned by the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE).

To be held from 1^st – 3^rd September 2021, Beijing, China

We are excited to announce the Call for Papers for the largest ever convening of academic researchers working on sustainable finance and investment.

The Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (‘GRASFI’) was founded in 2017 to promote multi-disciplinary academic research on sustainable finance and investment. The Alliance currently consists of 27 global research universities.

GRASFI organises a major annual academic conference on sustainable finance and investment. GRASFI is also supporting academic collaboration between researchers working on sustainable finance and nurturing the growth and development of graduate students and junior academics working on these topics.

There is a significant and growing interest among practitioners, policymakers, and civil society in sustainable finance and investment. High-quality, rigorous academic research can inform necessary developments in its theory and practice. Doing so will help align the financial system with global environmental sustainability, a necessary condition for implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the post-2020 biodiversity framework, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The 1st Annual Conference was held at the University of Maastricht in 2018, the 2nd at the University of Oxford in 2019, and the 3rd at Columbia University in 2020.

The 4th Annual Conference in 2021 is currently being planned by the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) of the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE). This will be the first GRASFI conference in an emerging economy and the first in Asia, one of the most dynamic regions for sustainable finance and investment.

The Conference Committee is seeking 40 high-quality papers for the conference with each paper having a 30-minute slot. Within each session, papers are likely to come from different disciplines to foster inter-disciplinary collaboration and learning.

DRAFT SESSION THEMES

• Adaptation and resilience
• Biodiversity and nature
• Central banks, regulation and supervision
• Data and metrics
• Emerging markets
• Environmental and climate risk analysis
• Financial disclosure and reporting
• Green and resilient recovery
• Sustainable sectors (agriculture, healthcare, infrastructure investment, etc.)
• FinTech
• Taxonomies
• Transition finance
• International cooperation
• Corporate sustainable performance

PAPER SUBMISSION

We invite submissions from any disciplinary, theoretical, or methodological perspective as long as they address topics within sustainable finance and investment.

Submissions must be academic working papers, which by the time of submission are not yet accepted for publication.

The Paper Selection Committee will be undertaking a double-blind peer-review process. The Paper Selection Committee is chaired by Professor Rob Bauer.

Please anonymise your submission (double-blind reviewing policy) by excluding authors’ names. All authors are welcome to join the conference. However, registration fees will still be due.

The deadline for submission is May 10th, 2021.

PAPER PRIZES

There will be at least 7 paper prizes awarded at the discretion of the Conference Committee:

• GRASFI Best Paper Prize (sponsor TBC) - £TBC
• GRASFI Best Novel Methods Paper Prize (sponsor TBC) - £TBC
• GRASFI Best PhD Paper Prize (sponsor TBC) - £TBC
• GRASFI Best Paper Prize for Research on Sustainable Investment (sponsor TBC) - £TBC
• GRASFI Best Paper Prize for Research that Supports Central Banks and Financial Regulators to Green the Financial System (sponsor TBC) - £TBC
• GRASFI Best Paper Prize for Research on Emerging Markets (sponsor TBC) - £TBC
• GRASFI Best Paper Prize for Research on China (sponsor TBC) - £TBC

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

• Professor Alexander Bassen, University of Hamburg
• Professor Rob Bauer, Maastricht University
• Professor Daniel Bradlow, University of Pretoria
• Dr Ben Caldecott, University of Oxford
• Professor CHEN Shiyi, Fudan University
• Professor David Glenn Fernandez, Singapore Management University
• Dr LI Jing, Tsinghua University
• Martina Linnenluecke, Macquirie
• Professor Kerstin Lopatta, University of Hamburg
• Dr MA Jun, Tsinghua University
• Dr Christoph Nedopil, Central University of Finance and Economics
• Dr Lisa Sachs, Columbia University
• Dr SUN Tianyin, Tsinghua University
• Dr Ulrich Volz, SOAS, University of London
• Professor WANG Yao, Central University of Finance and Economics
• Professor Olaf Weber, University of Waterloo
• Professor WEI Ping, Central South University
• Dr ZHANG Junjie, Kunshan Duke University