Ivana Burzic is Project Leader at Wood K plus, a research organisation in the field of wood and wood-related renewable resources in Linz, Austria. Within SSbD4CheM, she leads the work package dealing with the development and validation of novel materials for the three case studies, with fulfilled sustainability and safety aspects.

Tell us a bit about yourself. What is your area of expertise?

Ivana Burzic: Dipl.-Ing. Ivana Burzic has many years of experience in researching thermoplastic-based materials/formulation development and their application to various polymer processing technologies. She holds a position at Wood K plus R&D Center (Austria) as International Project Manager in the Bio-based Composites and Processes (BCP) team. Ivana has a background in Organic Chemistry and Polymer Engineering from the University of Belgrade (Serbia) and is interested in sustainable and circular materials for different application areas. Before joining Wood K plus, she spent 3 years at the Johannes Kepler University (Austria) at Institute of Polymer Extrusion and Compounding, where she worked closely with students as a research Associate. During her time at the university, Ivana enjoyed teaching students about plastic welding. She is very passionate about teaching young people, especially children, how we can change the future by having good habits and acting responsibly. When she’s not working on new business opportunities, developing technical concepts for EU proposals for working with international teams, Ivana enjoys shopping, cardio training and spending time with her family.

How does your specific work package “SSbD driven R&D of novel materials and Demonstration of Industrial Assay” contribute to the project?

IB: The WP7 work package of the SSbD4CheM project plays an important role as it develops novel renewable composites with optimised Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) emissions and odour for automotive applications, PFAS-free coatings for textile applications and investigates different types of nanocellulose as a sustainable additive in cosmetics in the light of the implementation of the SSbD framework. In order to fully exploit the potential benefits that innovative SSbD4CheM materials can offer, it is essential to prioritise safety aspects in conjunction with sustainability considerations. Therefore, by applying different steps of the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Framework considering different SSbD4CheM use cases, the WP7 work package will work closely with partners from other WPs to integrate functionality/innovation with safety and sustainability considerations as early as possible in the innovation process at TRL3/4 (R&D development process), thus saving costs towards their market introduction.

What is the most exciting thing about the activities in your work package?

IB: Collaboration with international teams as well as close collaboration with industrial partners (representatives of Stellantis Group, AHAVA and KORTEKS) to address different, sometimes complex issues related to the different use case requirements.