NIB - MORSKA BIOLOŠKA POSTAJA PIRAN
WG of support, development and innovation (SDI)
WG of support, development and innovation (SDI)
Working group of support, development and innovation (SDI) is a group, which combines administrative and research expertise and competences.
Fields of expertise, activities and research
Working group of support, development and innovation (SDI) is a group, which combines administrative and research expertise and competences.
SDI activities include, but are not limited to:
- Financial and administrative management of the national and international projects.
- Management and maintenance of the facilities of Marine Biology Station.
- Promotion of so-called soft skills (for example, science communication, teamwork etc.).
- Promotion and ensurance of gender equality and equality and diversity in general.
- Identification of research fields with high potential, but low level of national, regional and/or international exploitation (such as Blue Biotechnologies).
- Awareness raising and promotion of innovation.
- Management of Marine Biology Station rooms and apartments.
- MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions).
- Coordination of Marine Biology Station educational activities.
Gašper Polajnar, Undersecretary, Head of WG of support, development and innovation (SDI)
Head of working group. An economist with a Msc. in management. His work focuses primarily on preparing annual financial and business plans for Marine Biology Station Piran (MBS), monitoring and analysing business results, proposing and planning annual investments and monitoring their implementation, collaborating and advising the management of MBS, preparing various business and financial reports, and providing financial and administrative management of development and research projects.
http://www.nib.si/eng/index.php/component/directory/?view=details&id=45&Itemid=12
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Eylem Atak, Young researcher
She is PhD student at Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School (IPS). She is interested in obtaining bioactive substances from plants and marine organisms.
https://www.nib.si/mbp/en/cv/eylem-atak
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Daniel Bosch Ibáñez, Senior Professional Associate
Daniel is a microbiologist with extensive experience in molecular biology. His work on natural substances zeroes in on developing novel applications. In addition, Daniel is an active advocate for the protection of birds and the environment.
https://www.nib.si/mbp/en/cv/daniel-bosch-ibanez
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Tadej Gračner, Associate
He is an associate at MBS and a master’s student in tourism program at the University of Primorska (Slovenia). He holds a bachelor degree in Tourism. His work is focused on coordination of accommodation facilities, education facilities and MICE organizations.
http://www.nib.si/mbp/en/cv/tadej-gracner
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Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič, Associate
She is a project associate at MBS and a PhD student in management programme at the University of Primorska (Slovenia). Her activities are focused on the management of EU funded projects.
http://www.nib.si/mbp/en/cv/ernesta-grigalionyte-bembic-2
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Ana Rotter, Senior Research Associate
She is a microbiologist with a PhD in statistics at the MBS. Her research includes marine biotechnology, data visualization and analysis and network analysis. She is passionate about science communication, project management and applied sciences.
http://www.nib.si/mbp/en/cv/ana-rotter
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Anja Sergaš, Project Associate
Anja is an administrative assistant at MBS. She graduated management studies at the University of Primorska. Her work is based on the administrative support of the European projects.
http://www.nib.si/mbp/en/cv/anja-sergas
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Marko Tadejević, Senior Professional Associate
He is responsible for managing and maintaining the facilities of MBS.
http://www.nib.si/eng/index.php/phone-book-of-employees?view=directory&alpha=T
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Luen Zidar, Associate
Luen is a research associate at the Marine Biological Station Piran (MBP). She studied biology and holds a master's degree in molecular and functional biology. In her work at the MBP, she focuses on various areas of marine biotechnology.
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Marine and microbial biotechnology
The Research Programme »Marine and microbial biotechnology« focuses on marine and extreme environments related to low water activity, which are largely unexplored, unexploited and undervalorized. Our vision is to become the regional leaders in marine and extreme biotechnology. To achieve this, we will connect research groups and stakeholders to form national and international collaboration networks tackling acute societal challenges, providing concrete new and innovative solutions, products, and processes.
Duration: January 2022 – December 2027
Project team: Ana Rotter, Eylem Atak, Katja Klun, Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič.
Links: Website.
Biotehnological potential of selected microorganisms from Sečovlje Saltpans for application in cosmetics products
The overall objective of the proposed research is to develop the procedure to enhance the production of the known and novel compounds of high biotechnological value from selected microorganisms in Sečovlje Saltpans to be used as ingredients in cosmetic products. Specific objectives are:
(1) Assessment of microbial biodiversity of Sečovlje saltpans to provide basis for future work on characterization of species with biotechnological potential.
(2) Optimization of microbial growth of the selected microorganisms and optimized biosynthesis of selected compounds, including of laboratory- and pilot-scale cultivation ponds and biomass harvesting;
(3) Optimization of the extraction and purification protocols of bioactive compounds with a biotechnological potential;
(4) Prototype production of a new cosmetics line based on isolated ingredients from the microbial biomass.
Duration: October 2022 - September 2025
Project team: Ana Rotter, Eylem Atak, Katja Klun, Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič.
Links:: Website.
1. CA18238 - European transdisciplinary networking platform for marine biotechnology (Ocean4Biotech), H2020
The overall goal of Ocean4Biotech is to bring together experts in the field of marine biotechnology, to provide a platform for the exchange of experiences, knowledge and technologies, and to design a roadmap for a more efficient and faster development of marine biotechnology research in Europe and beyond. To our knowledge, such a large, diverse and geographically dispersed network of marine biotechnology experts does not exist. Since marine biotechnology is still in its infancy, we believe that this is the optimal time to create this efficient, operational, motivated, inclusive and sustainable network with a serious and ambitious commitment to proactive dissemination and science communication activities.
Duration: october 2019 - october 2023
Team: Ana Rotter, Katja Klun and Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič
Links: COST website, website and Twitter.
2. Community4Nature, Interreg EURO-Med
Community4Nature aims to achieve coordination -among different levels- of knowledge, best practices & policies to approach the challenges of biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation/adaptation. It enhances the coordination between multi-level stakeholders such as public authorities, sectoral agencies, schools, academic & research centers, NGOs, etc. in the Med area. Concretely, Community4Nature will establish a Community of Practice and deliver an Adaptive Resource recipient, a Methodology for assessing the potential of available community "resources", a set of training programmes, a portfolio of services embedded in the Community Amplification Room including a Mentorship programme addressed to specific target groups.
According to the coupled philosophy of "resource valorization", Community4Nature always exploits, reuses, reshapes the available knowledge, the existing practices and infrastructure (produced by Euro-MED thematic and strategic projects) to avoid the duplication of efforts and to amplify the results.
Duration: January 2023 - December 2029
Project team: Ana Rotter, Anja Sergaš, Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič, Daniel Bosh and Luen Zidar
3. WNBLUE - Empowering Women and Mainstreaming Gender Equality in the Blue Economy, EMFAF
The project WINBLUE intends to accelerate the empowerment of women in the blue economy through facilitating their participation in five different sectors revolving around the conservation and sustainable use of the aquatic resources: circular blue bioeconomy and biotechnology, aquaculture and fisheries, offshore renewable energy, sustainable coastal tourism, cutting-edge enabling technology for protecting and restoring marine ecosystems. The project also implements a data collection and monitoring strategy to both benchmark and monitor the evolution of the level of gender inclusiveness in the blue economy sectors and fill the data gaps that still exist. This complements a comprehensive identification and assessment of highly replicable good practices which can easily be adopted and transferred to different sectors and types of organisations.
Duration: maj 2023 - april 2025
Project team: Ana Rotter, Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič, Daniel Bosh and Luen Zidar
4. Boosting the Blue Biotechnology community in the Mediterranean (2B-Blue), Interreg Euro-MED
2BBLUE aims to capitalize on B-Blue positive results to: 1) Exemplify evidence-based best practices identified to help communities turn BBt research into practice, 2)Build national demonstration sites (DS) to experiment emerging technologies or practices in local field conditions and bridge the gap among BBt research and industry for new technologies adaptation while help improve marine environment, 3) Establish strategic alliances of 5-helix stakeholders for the uptake of advanced blue biotechnologies by Med industries and 4)improve regional policies for enhancing sustainability, research and innovation capacities in Euro-Med area. Thus, the main challenges detected in the BBlue work - most related to funding, normative and public and private collaboration- can be transformed into opportunities in 2B-Blue and result in more sustainable and efficient practices as well as better structuring of the BBt sector in the Mediterranean.
Duration: january 2024 - september 2026
Project team: Ana Rotter, Anja Sergaš, Luen Zidar, Daniel Bosch, Katja Klun and Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič.
Links: Twitter
1. ROTTER, Ana, BACU, Ariola, BARBIER, Michèle, BERTONI, Francesco, BONES, Atle M., CANCELA, M. Leonor, CARLSSON , Jens, et al. 2020. 'A New Network for the Advancement of Marine Biotechnology in Europe and Beyond'. Frontiers in Marine Science 7: 278. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00278.
2. ROTTER, Ana, BARBIER, Michèle, BERTONI, Francesco, BONES, Atle M., CANCELA, M. Leonor, CARLSSON, Jens, CARVALHO, Maria F., et al. 2021. 'The Essentials of Marine Biotechnology'. Frontiers in Marine Science 8: 158. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.629629.
3. ROTTER, ANA, GAUDÊNCIO, Susana P., KLUN, Katja, MACHER, Jan-Niklas, THOMAS, Olivier P., DENIZ, Irem, EDWARDS, Christine, GRIGALIONYTE-BEMBIČ, Ernesta et al. 2021. 'A New Tool for Faster Construction of Marine Biotechnology Collaborative Networks'. Frontiers in Marine Science 8: 530. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.685164.
4. ROTTER, ANA, and GOSTINČAR, Cene. 2014. 'A Defense of Eastern European Science�. Science 343 (6173): 839. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.343.6173.839-a.
5. ROTTER, ANA, GIANNAKOUROU, Antonia, ARGENTE GARCÍA, Jesús E., QUERO, Grazia Marina, AUREGAN, Charlène, GRIGALIONYTE-BEMBIČ, Ernesta et al. 2023. Identification of Marine Biotechnology Value Chains with High Potential in the Northern Mediterranean Region'.Marine Drugs 21(7), 416. https://doi.org/10.3390/md21070416.
CA18238 management Committee members
Institute of Culture and Memory Studies, Research Center of the Slovene Academy of Science and Arts
National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Italy
The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece
The National Research Council (CNR), Italy
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Germany
Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za gradbeništvo in geodezijo (UL FGG)
Univerza v Ljubljani, Biotehniška fakulteta (UL BF)
Univerza v Mariboru, Fakulteta za matematiko in naravoslovje (UM FNM)
University of Siena (UNISA), Italy.
The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), Spain
Varna Economic Development Agency, Bulgaria
National Inter-University Consortium for Marine Sciences (CoNISMa), Italy
National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece
Research Center for Ecology and Forest Applications (CREAF), Spain
University of Murcia (UMU), Spain
Blue EcoTech Ltd, Malta
University of Sarajevo (UNSA), Bosnia and Herzegovina
1. Community of Practice for Gender Equality in Central and Eastern Europe (GEinCEE)
The CoP gathers practitioners - representatives of higher education institutions (HEIs), research and study centres, research funding organizations (RFOs), policy-making organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and entrepreneurships operating mainly in Central and Eastern European countries, who commit to promote institutional change to advance gender equality in their organizations.
Representative: Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič
Link: CEinCEE
2. Alternative Infrastructure for Gender Equality (Alt+G)
This is a Community of Practice (CoP) of various academic institutions in Slovenia interested in implementing gender equality policies at their institutions. Since no institution in Slovenia has a gender equality office (er), the focus of CoP Alt+G is to create an alternative institutional infrastructure for sharing knowledge, experiences and strategies for implementing gender equality policies at institutional and national level. The plan is to expand Alt+G to the region of the former Yugoslavia where the structural context is most similar.
Representatives: Ana Rotter, Katja Klun in Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič.
Link: Alt+G
In the photos (left to right and top to bottom):
1. Group photo WG of support, development and innovation (SDI) (Photo: archive MBS)
2. Working in the laboratory (Photo: archive MBS)
3. One of the workshops during the Researchers' Night 2013 at the Marine Biology Station Piran (NIB) (Photo: Vladimir Bernetič)
4. One of the workshops during the Day of open doors of the Marine Biology Station Piran (NIB) (Photo: Vesna Flander Putrle)
5. CHANGE workshop (CHAlleNging Gender (In)Equality in science and research), September 2020 (Photo: Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič)
6. CHANGE workshop (CHAlleNging Gender (In)Equality in science and research), September 2020 (Photo: Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič)
7. Ocean4Biotech Working Group 3 Workshop, February 2020 (Photo: Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič)
8. Ocean4Biotech Conference, February 2020 (Photo: Ernesta Grigalionyte-Bembič)
