SCALE-UP Advisory Board

Tatjana Batas - Mozaik Business Consultancy

Tatjana Batas is an independent business consultant, coach and Project facilitator. She provides consulting services for cross-sectoral and multi-actor initiatives in circular economy and bioeconomy at the regional and European level, on diverse challenges such as innovation enhancement, businesses development, acceleration of SMEs and job creation. Her areas of expertise also include clusters, cross-cutting issues, market & competitive landscape screening and the identification of and communication with institutional stakeholders and the scientific community.  She possesses advanced knowledge of agro-food, renewable energy and blue economy value chains, promoting zero-waste solutions with long-term social, environmental and governance impacts. Since 2006, she works as an independent expert for the European Commission within HORIZON CSA and IA programmes.

Tatjana Batas is a Medical Diagnostics Engineer and holds an MBA master's degree from Henley Management College, London, UK. She is a Certified Knowledge Manager (Knowledge Management Institution, USA) and a certified EU Coach in Blue Economy.

Jeannette van Rijsoort - Provincial Government Gelderland

Jeannette van Rijsoort is a tropical and social ecologist by background with more than 25 years of experience as a consultant and programme leader in sustainability, forest management and rural development, in the Netherlands and developing countries. She worked for/in government, research, NGOs, (agricultural and forest) cooperatives, and as a consultant, in the Netherlands, Africa and Asia, including three years in SW China (Yunnan). She has also been an entrepreneur, and after identifying a niche market, set up, expanded and successfully sold a business in sustainable bamboo clothing. Her passion is to work on innovative solutions within sustainable development (biobased economy and circular economy) and to connect people and organisations. Increasingly, she intends to use nature as a model, measure and mentor for these innovative transitions (biomimicry).

Jeannette van Rijsoort is currently working as transition manager for the Programme Circular Economy of the provincial government of Gelderland, the Netherlands. The focus of the programme is on the sectors with currently the largest volumes of primary resources use, i.e. agrifood, construction, infrastructure, manufacturing industry, and waste and consumers. The ambition is to reduce the use of primary resources in 2030 by 50% and by 100% in 2050, both through closing the loop of primary resources and substitution by bio-resources.

Joachim Venus - Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB Potsdam)

Joachim Venus works as senior scientist at the ATB Potsdam. He is program coordinator for the research program "Material and energetic use of biomass" and head of the research group bio-based products at the Bioengineering department. His scientific focus is on the development of continuous processes for the production of basic chemicals – in particular lactic acid – from biogenic resources. He is Dipl.-Ing. in biotechnology and has received a PhD from the University of Dresden on "Scale-up of aerobic fermentation processes in the pharmaceutical industry".

Dorian Wessely - Cleantech Cluster Upper Austria

Dorian Wessely is a professional with a diverse skill set and a passion for sustainable solutions. His educational background includes a Dipl.-Ing. and BSc degree from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, where he focused on the Material and Energetic Exploitation of Renewable Raw Materials, coupled with a Bachelor's program in Environment and Bioresource Management.

In his role as Cleantech-Cluster Manager at Business Upper Austria GmbH since January 2022, Dorian Wessely has made contributions to fostering regional, national, and international collaborations, utilizing his expertise in environmental matters and circular economy strategies. Prior to this, he served as a Project and Key Account Manager in the same organization from August 2018 to January 2022, successfully spearheading initiatives related to Circular Economy, Bioeconomy, Bioenergy, Water and Wastewater Management.

As Project Manager, Dorian Wessely contributed to prominent EU projects such as "GoDanuBio!", "DanuBioValNet" and "AlpLinkBioEco." These endeavors have advanced the fields of Bioeconomy, Participatory Governance, and Novel Biobased Value Chains in Upper Austria. As Cluster Manager, Dorian Wessely is currently overseeing notable projects such as the Horizon Project SYMBIOREM, targeting pollutants in European soil and water, and the flagship initiative Bioeconomy Austria, aiming at the development of a national Bioeconomy Cluster.