Tina Benda

Tina Benda holds an M.Sc. in Geology from the University of Ljubljana. She has 15 years of project management experience and has held notable positions such as Head of the Department for Mineral Resources and Environmental Geochemistry at the Geological Survey of Slovenia and currently works as Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) Manager at EIT RawMaterials.  

Her past research interests focused on hydrogeology, but in the last 10+ years Tina’s focus is on mineral resources, geochemistry, and innovation-driven raw materials development, with involvement in multiple EU-funded projects across the RIS regions. The EIT RawMaterials Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) is building innovation capacity across Europe by connecting innovators and reducing regional disparities. 

As RIS Manager, she successfully managed innovation calls and portfolio, and introduced new EIT RawMaterials RIS project types that significantly improved innovation & commercialisation performance and financial sustainability within RIS activities. Additionally, she represented Slovenia at the Raw Materials Supply Group under DG GROW, contributing key insights on critical raw materials and national sectoral potential.