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Expression of supervisor’s interest to host Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellows at the University of Ljubljana (UL)

Prof. dr. Marko Petrič from University of Ljubljana is searching for a top-class experienced researcher of any nationality interested in developing collaborative MSCA IF application for the following EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 actions: Call H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 • Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships – European (MSCA-IF-2016-EF) Planned opening date: 12 April 2016 Deadline: 14 September 2016 • Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships – Global (MSCA-IF-2016-GF) More info H2020-MSCA-IF-2016

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR MSC FELLOWS • The researcher must, at the deadline for the submission of proposals, be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience. The researcher may be of any nationality. • Mobility rule: the researcher must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies) in the country of the host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the deadline for submission of proposals.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR POTENTIAL CANDIDATES – RESEARCHER’S CAREER DEVELOPMENT The goal of MSCA Individual Fellowships is to enhance the creative and innovative potential of experienced researchers (postdoctoral or with 4 years of equivalent research experience) wishing to diversify their individual competence in terms of skill acquisition through advanced training, international and intersectoral mobility. The researcher and supervisor will develop the application jointly. The project proposals will be submitted by the host organization. If the application will be successful, the IF researcher will be recruited under an employment contract with a monthly salary of 4.650 €* coefficient of the country where the researcher is hosted (living allowance) + 600 € (mobility allowance) + 500 € (family allowance) per month. More information may be found here.

University of Ljubljana offers stimulating environment for postdoctoral research providing modern core facilities in a supported environment with on-the-job training and supervision. In addition, postdoctoral researchers will have access to the generic and transferable skills trainings, they will have the possibility to be involved in educational process and if suitable, they will be seconded to industry all with the purpose for further development of their careers in the academic and non-academic sector.

Researchers who wish to cooperate with UL for the submission of a project proposal under the aforementioned Actions should check that they fulfil the respective eligibility criteria and then send an expression of interest, consisting of a CV and a two-page summary presentation of their research proposal by 18 March 2016. Proposals will be pre-selected based on internal evaluation and the availability of suitable supervision. Candidates will be informed of the results of the pre-selection by 25 March 2016.

Selected candidates will be invited to meet the supervisor and visit the research environment of the university within the 2- day MSCA-IF proposal writing workshop in Ljubljana organised by the UL at the end of May 2016.

UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA University of Ljubljana (Univerza v Ljubljani, UL) was founded in 1919 and is the oldest and largest higher education and scientific research institution in Slovenia. It encompasses 23 faculties and 3 art academies and has more than 40.000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and approximately 5.600 employees. UL is listed amongst the top 500 universities in the world according to the ARWU Shanghai, Times THES-QS and WEBOMETRICS rankings. UL is very active in national and international R&D and educational programmes, and creates almost half of the research results of Slovenia. In the period 2007- 2013 UL cooperated in 745 EU projects, including 163 FP7 projects, which places UL on the first place among the organisations in the EU 13 member states. The University of Ljubljana has close ties with many excellent Slovenian and foreign companies. In May 2015, UL founded the Slovenian Innovation Hub, which will operate mainly as a facilitator and promoter of development and research teams in the academic and business sphere. UL is also founder of the University incubator, the Institute for Research and Innovation, and very recently the SMUL network - a global alumni and associates network. From 2008 UL is committed to respect the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for Recruitment of Researchers, which led to the EC given UL the right to use the logo 'HR Excellence in Research' in 2013.

PROFILE OF THE SUPERVISOR

NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR: Prof. dr. Marko Petrič MAIN RESEARCH FIELD: Wood Science and Technology – surface finishing of wood; liquefaction of lignocellulosics; nanoparticles E-MAIL address: [email protected] LINK to SUPERVISOR’s CV: http://les.bf.uni-lj.si/en/about-us/employees-new/show/marko-petric/

DESCRIPTION OF THE SUPERVISOR

Marko PETRIČ, PhD, full professor University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Wood Science and Technology, Jamnikarjeva ulica 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; tel.: +386 (0)1 320 36 20, fax: +386 (0)1 257 22 85 e-mail: [email protected]

EDUCATION, ACADEMIC DEGREES, PEDAGOGICAL WORK Marko Petrič, BSc (1987), MSc (1990), PhD (1994) – all in Chemistry; full professor for “Wood working and wood processing technologies”. On undergraduate and postgraduate levels he gives courses on surface properties and finishing of wood, and on materials; supervisor to many undergraduate and to 6 PhD students (5 finished, 1 in progress). He has been supervisor to 3 post-doc researchers (2 from India, 1 from France/Cameroun).

EMPLOYMENTS 1987 – 1990, Department of technical ceramics, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia: junior researcher; from November 1990: current affiliation (from March 2000 university professor).

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES Research of wood coatings for interior and exterior, their interactions with various substrates (solid, modified and densified wood), wood liquefaction and preparation of wood coatings based on liquefied wood, applications of nanomaterials in wood coatings and in treatment of wood. Surface characteristics of wood – wettability, surface free energy. In addition, he has studied new environmentally friendly wood preservatives and all aspects of exposure of wood in exterior.

RESEARCH FIELD OF THE SUPERVISOR

Main research field: Wood Science and Technology Sub-fields: - Surface finishing of wood and lignocellulose materials with coatings, paints, lacquers, oils, … - Surface properties of wood (wettability, surface free energy) - Surface properties of coated wood - Performance of wood and wooden materials in interior and exterior use - Influence of weathering and artificial accelerated ageing on un-finished and coated wood and wood based materials - Liquefaction of wood and lignocellulose materials (biorefineries) - Preparation of bio-based coatings made of liquefied wood and lignocellulose materials; performance/properties of bio- based coatings - Application of nano-particles in wood coatings - Deposition of nano-particles on wood surfaces by sol-gel methods - Hydrophobisation of wood and wood based materials

RECENT TRACK-RECORD and other SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS

KUMAR, Anuj, PETRIČ, Marko, KRIČEJ, Borut, ŽIGON, Jure, TYWONIAK, Jan, HÁJEK, Petr, SEVER ŠKAPIN, Andrijana, PAVLIČ, Matjaž. Liquefied wood based polyurethane-nanosilica hybrid coatings and hydrophobization by self-assembled monolayers of orthotrichlorosilane (OTS). ACS sustainable chemistry & engineering, ISSN 2168-0485, 2015, vol. 3, in press, pp. 1-32, ilustr. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b00723 , doi: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b00723.

CHEUMANI-YONA, Arnaud Maxime, BUDIJA, Franc, HRASTNIK, David, PAVLIČ, Matjaž, PORI, Pavel, TAVZES, Črtomir, PETRIČ, Marko. Preparation of two-component polyurethane coatings from bleached liquefied wood. Bioresources, ISSN 1930-2126, 2015, vol. 10, iss. 2, pp. 3347-3363. http://ojs.cnr.ncsu.edu/index.php/BioRes/article/view/BioRes_10_2_3347_Cheumani_Yona_Polyurethane_Coatings_Liquefied_ Wood .

MIKLEČIĆ, Josip, LUČIĆ BLAGOJEVIĆ, Sanja, PETRIČ, Marko, JIROUŠ-RAJKOVIĆ, Vlatka. Influence of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles on properties of waterbornepolyacrylate coating exposed to outdoor conditions. Progress in organic coatings, ISSN 0300-9440. [Print ed.], 2015, vol. 89, no. dec., pp. 67-74, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030094401530059X .

KUTNAR, Andreja, KRIČEJ, Borut, PAVLIČ, Matjaž, PETRIČ, Marko. Influence of treatment temperature on wettability of Norway spruce thermally modified in vacuum. Journal of adhesion science and technology, ISSN 0169-4243, 2013, vol. 27, no. 9, pp. 963- 972, doi: 10.1080/01694243.2012.727168 .

PETRIČ, Marko, OVEN, Primož. Determination of wettability of wood and its significance in wood science and technology : a critical review. Reviews of adhesion and adhesives, ISSN 2168-0973, 2015, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 121-187. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/scrivener/raa/2015/00000003/00000002/art00001;jsessionid=fvmi82guxcc7.victoria

RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT

FACULTY/DEPARTMENT/LABORATORY

Department of Wood Science & Technology is part of Biotechnical Faculty (BF), Ljubljana, Slovenia. BF is among the largest faculties of the University of Ljubljana, with more than 540 employees and over 2300 students per year. It consists of 7 departments, including the Department of Wood Science & Technology (47 employees organised in 7 Chairs or Working Groups, around 250 students). The primary activity of the Department of Wood Science & Technology is education on BSc/MSc/PhD levels. At the same time, it is the only research and development institution in the field of wood science and technology in Slovenia, with a strong co- operation with Slovenian wood-processing industry. Research activities cover wood technology (anatomy, dendrochronology, wood drying); wood pathology and preservation, wood coatings, wooden constructions, saw-milling, wood chemistry, wood based materials and products, wood machining and economic investigations in wood processing sector. Surface wood finishing laboratory/group, where the fellow is supposed to carry out majority of her/his work, is part of the Chair for wood bonding, wood-based composites and surface finishing of wood. In the wood finishing laboratory, only three employees have a permanent position: the head, Prof. Dr. Marko Petrič, the assistant, Dr. Matjaž Pavlič, and the technical assistant, Mr. Jure Žigon. The lab covers all aspects of surface finishing of wood and is specialised for standard and non-standard characterisation of wood surfaces and coated wood. It has a well established collaboration with Slovenian furniture producers and some other companies from the wood based industrial sector.

RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE

Selected relevant equipment, available at the Department of Wood Science & Technology: - Equipment for standard determination of properties of liquid and cured coatings, - theta (Optical Tensiometer) contact angle goniometer (Biolin Scientific Oy, Espoo – Finland), - tensiometer Kruss K100, - colorimeter (X-Rite SP60 Sphere Spectrophotometer), - AcuGloss TRI Gloss Meter, - artificial weathering instrument (Suntest® XXL), - FTIR spectrometer with attached microscope, Spectrum one, Perkin Elmer, - X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (Twin X), Oxford instruments, - rheometer ARES with a system for curing analyses, - system for dielectric analysis (DEA), - high pressure DSC, - SEM (in the process of purchasing, will be available from June/July 2016), - universal testing machines Zwick, 2

- UV/vis spectrometer, - light microscope Nikon Eclipse + Lucia image analysis system, wood anatomy laboratory - various wood conditioning chambers, - ordinary laboratory equipment for “wet chemistry” experiments, - several vacuum/pressure chambers for impregnation and thermal modification of wood - microbiological laboratory for work in sterile conditions (for determination of resistance against wood decay fungi) - rich bank of fungal cultures, - laboratory for wood working - laboratory for standard testing of furniture - Research equipment, accessible in the partner institutions: SEM, TEM, ESR (EPR), NMR, elemental analysis systems

ACADEMIC AND NON-ACADEMIC COLLABORATION

The leader of the surface finishing group, Prof. Dr. M. Petrič was a supervisor of two post-doc training of researchers from abroad, financed by the Slovene Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund: dr. Manabendra Deka from India and of dr. Arnaud Maxime Cheumani Yona from France / Cameroun. He is currently collaborating with the post-doc Dr. Anuj Kumar (Czech Technical University in Prague) who has visited the labs in Ljubljana for several times in the last period. At the Biotechnical faculty, as well as at the Dept. of Wood Science & Technology, international staff and students exchange is very active, especially in the frame of European Erasmus and Erasmus+ exchange programmes. At GF, we have approximately 50-60 incoming students from various European countries and aslo about the same number of outgoing students. At least 1-2 of incoming students per year work in the Wood surface finishing laboratory. In addition, in the last years, every year we hosted at least one student per year, for the summer training, from ENSTIB, Ecole National Superieur des techniques et industries du bois, Epinal, which is the part of the University of Lorraine, Nancy, France. The Dept. of Wood Science & Technology is well internationally known and established. The same is true also for the Wood Surface finishing group. This can be well illustrated by some selected international activities of the leader of the group, prof. Dr. M. Petrič: leader of the Section 3 (Wood Protecting Chemicals) in the International Research Group for Wood Protection (IRG/WP), Stockholm, Sweden and member of the Scientific Programme committee (SPC) in IRG/WP (till including 2009); Member of the editorial board of the journal “Drvna industrija” (Wood industry) (Zagreb, Croatia); member of the editorial board of the journal “Journal of adhesion science and technology” (2012-2013), member of the editorial board of the journal “Reviews of adhesion and adhesives” (2013-); member of scientific programme committees of the conferences ICECFOP (2004) and Ecowood (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012), Porto Portugal; member of the committee of the ECWM6 conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia; Invited external examiner at University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya, 2012-2015, etc. The department of Wood Science & Technology has been participating in many national and European research programmes. Just to name some selected ones: COST FP1006 - Bringing new functions to wood through surface modification; COST FP 1303 - Performance of bio-based building materials; COST FP 1205 - Innovative applications of regenerated wood cellulose fibres innovation; ERA-NET WoodWisdom-Net - Bark valorisation into insulating foams and bioenergy; ERA-NET WoodWisdom -Net2 - Pinosylvins as novel bioactive agents for food applications; ERA-NET Plus Wood Wisdom –Net+ - Mobilisation and utilisation of recycled wood for lignocellulosic biorefinery processes; etc. The Department of Wood Science & technology has developed collaboration with various stakeholders from the Sector. So, also the Wood Surface Finishing group permanently collaborate (research, development, testing) with various furniture producing companies (for instance the joinery producer M-Sora, Žiri), producers and retailers of wooden floorings, paint and preservative/modified wood producers (e.g. Helios, d.d., or Chemcolor, d.o.o., and for instance Silvaprodukt, d.o.o., respectively), where there the secondment arrangement for MSC fellows could be organised.

SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS/PREFERENCES

- Required language: good to excellent knowledge of English language; ability to fluently communicate in English fluent; ability to write in a proper English written language - PhD in a relevant field, ideally in one of the following categories: (i) chemistry – preferably in polymer chemistry or with a focus on application of nanomaterials; (ii) materials science; (iii) surface science; (iv) wood science and technology; or (v) building/architectural science and technology related to wooden structures - If PhD of the candidate was not related to wood and wood-based and other lignocellulosic materials, some basic knowledge / experience on wood-related topics is advantageous - Research experience after PhD is not a prerequisite, but it is highly advantageous - If the candidate has a research experience, the following areas are beneficial: polymer chemistry / materials; surface coatings (paints, varnishes, lacquers, …); physico-chemical instrumental methods of characterisation of materials and/or surfaces; bio-based materials (including wood and other lignocellulosic substances); (bio-based) composites; application of nanoparticles in order to improve material/surface characteristics - Ability to exercise original and critical thought 3

- Outstanding research potential or experience, exhibited by a letter of motivation, papers of a high quality in established international scientific journals, various awards (for instance for excellent study achievements, student poster / presentation awards, and similar) - Established research interests - Excellent communication skills - Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively

OTHER

It is expected that the fellow will during her/his research stay at the host institution gain or improve or complement her/his existing knowledge that would help her/him in her/his development of the research career. Such new/complementary areas are knowledge on wood surface coatings, their interaction with wood-based materials, liquefaction of wood and other lignocellulosic materials, experimental techniques to characterise properties of liquid and cured surface finishes, weathering of wood-based (with or without a surface finish) materials, etc. The specific topic will be chosen in accordance with the fellow’s interests in such a way that it would be complementary to the existing knowledge at the host institution. The research will be organised and led by the fellow her/himself, under supervision. This will contribute to his development into a leading independent researcher. A two-way transfer of knowledge is expected as the result of the work at the host institution. In addition, the fellow will be introduced into the international research network of the host.