Meet the team

RISE/Company Management
Innovation Management
Innovation & Knowledge Valorisation
Science Communications
Office Operations

Ema Ćerimagić

Managing Director

With roots in the cultural sectors of Croatia and Italy, and dual MA degrees in Art History and Museology and Heritage Management, Ema moved through EU programme management, policy work and large-scale research coordination. Before joining RISE, she led national efforts to evaluate key aspects of EU programme implementation and impact in cooperation with the European Commission and National Agencies across Europe, while also contributing to policy development on inclusion and diversity.

Her contributions to RISE's strategic planning and business development were the foundation to taking the helm as Managing Director and Head of the Zagreb Office in December 2024. From museum corridors to managing director: she brings a strategic, operational and cross-sectoral perspective to our team.

Gabrijela Radić

Managing Director

Gabrijela started where many great research managers start - in science itself. An MA in Experimental Biology from the University of Zagreb gave her a foundation that has informed everything since: EU project implementation, complex grant management, clinical trials and pharmaceutical partnerships, and a pan-European initiative connecting twelve life science institutions.

She has been part of RISE from its very first days in 2023, shaping its operational foundations before taking the helm as Managing Director and Head of the Split Office in December 2024. The scientific instinct hasn't gone anywhere. Yet, it operates at a different scale now - she brings scientific rigour and operational depth to a role that demands both.

Iva Baršić

Project Assistant

Before Iva became a Project Assistant, she was coordinating international cooperation for a student organisation and building expertise in Human Resources and administration across a range of business environments. An MA in Management from the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb sharpened that broad foundation into something more focused. At RISE, she brings the people instinct of an HR professional and the operational precision of a manager to her work as a Project Assistant: a combination that tends to make projects run noticeably smoother.

Valentina Guštin

Communications Manager

With an MA in Marketing from the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb, Valentina moved through sales, marketing and project coordination across two quite different industries (furniture and Human Resources) before finding her footing in the EU research space. The through line, across all of it, has been a strong curiosity about how things are positioned, communicated and managed, and at RISE, she gets to explore all three.

Nikolina Lednicki

Communications Manager

Nikolina is a communications professional with one foot in practice and one in research. Currently pursuing a PhD in Crisis Communication at the University of Ljubljana, she has built her career in EU project dissemination, public relations, content creation and social media management across academic, civil society and institutional settings. At RISE, she brings both the communication instinct and an academic exploratory mindset to her projects.

Josip Luša

Research and Impact Manager

Three languages, two MA degrees, and a career spent making complex projects work. With MA degrees in English & German and Croatian Language and Literature from the University of Zadar, Josip adds a sharp communicator's instinct, and experience coordinating and managing EU projects and initiatives across various fields to our team. From writing proposals to evaluation, monitoring and policy work on inclusion and diversity, he's seen, and shaped, the full arc of what it takes to make a project succeed.

Đevaire Memedi

Project Manager

Đevaire started in administration and found her calling in cross-border collaboration, the kind of trajectory that tends to produce unusually well-rounded project managers. Her background includes international consulting and coordination of EU-funded social projects, underpinned by an MA degree in Financial Management. She speaks Albanian, Macedonian, Croatian and English, and brings to RISE a genuine belief that innovative ideas with social impact are best developed through collaborative partnerships.

Ina Pajković

Communications & Design Manager

Good design, Ina will tell you, is about more than aesthetics, it's about how things work for the people using them. With an MA from the Faculty of Graphic Arts in Zagreb and experience across agencies and the so-called Software as a Service (SaaS) world, she has built a practice that spans graphic and web design in equal measure. She is as comfortable with visual identity development as she is with user interface design, and brings the same curiosity and proficient insight to both.

Marta Palac

Communications Manager

Marta started out studying journalism in Zagreb, earned her MA in Corporate Communication from Baruch college in New York City, and somewhere between the two cities built a career that covers television, radio and digital marketing in equal measure. She's been a scriptwriter, a programme director, an executive producer, and a marketing strategist, sometimes all at once. Since joining RISE in 2023, she has channelled that range into science communications that draw on every bit of it.

Bruna Paušić

Senior Research and Impact Manager

Bruna has seen EU projects from almost every angle: proposal writing, execution, industry advisory, academic leadership. With an MBA from Webster University in Austria, she built her expertise across major EU programmes, leading initiatives from the first draft to final delivery.

As Head of the Unit Project Development at the University of Split, she shaped how research proposals were developed and submitted at an institutional level. Her time as a Senior Advisor in the Enterprise Europe Network gave her something equally valuable: a sharp understanding of what industry actually needs. At RISE, she brings a perspective that is at once strategic, operational and grounded in practice.

Lucija Rogina

Innovation Manager

The space between academic discovery and real-world impact is where Lucija does her best work - and she took the scenic route. A MA in Food Engineering, project coordination across translational science and drug development, a dedicated IP qualification, and the 2022 LifeArc-AUTM technology transfer fellowship: each step sharpened a focus that was always pointing in the same direction. At RISE, she brings that accumulated expertise to her role as Innovation Manager and leads the Innovation Ecosystem Valorisation Practices.

Nela Simić

Team Assistant

After earning her MA degree in Italian Language and Literature and Art History from the University of Split, Nela built a diverse professional career across translation, education, shipbuilding, administration, and business operations. As a certified court interpreter for English and Italian, she has developed strong expertise in translation, communication, and cross-cultural collaboration. Her professional experience spans office management, procurement, and administrative coordination. Behind the scenes, she keeps the wheels turning, supporting operations and making sure that the rest of the team can focus on their work. The kind of colleague every organisation needs, and few are lucky enough to have.

Smiljka Vikić-Topić

Senior Strategic Advisor

Smiljka´s career reads like a map of where research meets the real world. It began in molecular biology, at the University of Zagreb, then across four years in the US at Wake Forest University, the NIH and the Mayo Clinic, before pivoting toward knowledge valorisation. She founded the technology transfer office at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine, led EU projects with commercialisation at their core, and played a leading role in establishing RISE in 2023. Since 2025, she holds an advisory role, dividing her time between her four grandchildren and intellectual property, knowledge transfer and valorisation. Still teaching, still evaluating, and still an active voice in the European knowledge transfer community.

Ivana Vuka

Senior Innovation Manager

Not many innovation managers have studied both the ocean and the human brain, but Ivana has, and that breadth of scientific curiosity turns out to be exactly what technology transfer demands. A MA in Marine Biology and a PhD in Neuroscience laid the foundation for nearly a decade of work connecting research to real-world impact: leading a technology transfer office, training researchers on intellectual property (IP) and commercialisation, and representing Croatia as Ambassador with the “RM Roadmap” project - promoting the professional recognition of research managers across Europe.

At RISE, she coordinates European IP Helpdesk activities for Widening countries, contributing scientific credibility and practical expertise.

Antonija Zrno Ćulap

Senior Research and Impact Manager

Antonija has a MA in Political Science, a background in public institutions and civil society, and a passion for project management that she discovered by doing it. Her path took her through a national Ministry and an NGO before landing in the management of EIT-funded projects at the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, a combination that looks unexpected on paper and makes perfect sense in practice. Along the way, she confirmed what she had always suspected: that scientific innovation and societal impact are most interesting when they happen together. Since joining RISE in 2023, the political scientist and the project manager in her finally get to work as one.

Sofija Jelčić

Research and Impact Manager

Sofija came to RISE with a track record already built at the European level. An MA in Economics from the University of Zagreb laid the foundation; hands-on project management for the European Commission and the European Investment Bank did the rest. She's worked across technology transfer, renewable energy and innovation, led stakeholder engagement across the public and private sectors, and designed training programmes for ministries, national banks and large enterprises. As Research and Impact Manager at RISE, she brings the full weight of that experience to bear: European institutions, diverse sectors, and a track record that speaks for itself.

Slaven Rašković

Research and Impact Manager

Slaven works in the space where social sciences and technology meet, and has spent his career making that intersection productive. With a background ranging from digital innovation to transparency and human rights, he has led EU and internationally funded projects across more than a decade, coordinating international teams and forging connections between academia, civil society and institutional stakeholders. His MA in Sociology and Information Science ties it all together: the academic grounding behind a career built on bridging worlds. At RISE, he brings that analytical depth and cross-sector fluency to everything he does.