Overseas Travel Grant for a Maritime Logistics Symposium and a Research Visit at Shanghai

The maritime industry forms a vital link in the chain of the global trade with some 90 percent of international trade conducted by sea. Maritime logistics studies are increasingly attracting attention from both the industrial sector and academic community. Modern logistics operations are complex in nature. For example, a typical door-to-door journey using a shipping container will involve the interaction of approximately 25 different participants, generate 30-40 documents, use 2-3 different modes and be handled at as many as 12-15 physical locations. The Shanghai World Expo 2010 is an eye-catching event expected to attract 70m visitors world-wide. The twin cities of Shanghai and Liverpool have a strong relationship going back many hundreds of years, and share many similarities particularly in the maritime industries. Taking the advantage of the above, the proposed Maritime Logistics Symposium of two days is to be held at the Liverpool pavilion within the Shanghai World Expo 2010 site in August 2009. The scope of the Symposium covers a broad spectrum of areas of maritime logistics ranging from fundamental research to real-world applications. In particular, the topic areas covered in the Symposium include maritime logistics education, finance management, logistics management, supply chain management, port management, safety and security management and policy making which will be specifically addressed through invited presentations. There will be two panel discussions on trends in maritime logistics development following the financial Tsunami and impact of the climate change on shipping in this symposium.This symposium provides huge opportunities for UK universities and companies to collaborate with organisations in China. The theme of this symposium is working towards an integrated maritime logistics system . This symposium is not only a special forum for supporting the development and sharing of ideas, best practices and expertise in a wide range of maritime logistics phases but also a unique occasion in terms of establishing wide collaboration between scholars and industrialists in the Far East (particularly China) and the UK in the areas of general maritime logistics studies. Following the Symposium, research visits for the four investigators of this project are arranged at two universities in Shanghai. Dr Li and Dr Ismail will investigate issues of integration and optimisation of maritime port operations with inland multi-modal logistics network and global networks, and impact of carbon emission control in such a context at Shanghai Jiao Tong University while Prof. Wang and Dr Yang will work with Shanghai Maritime University to study how risk and security issues are effectively addressed in a container supply chain and how high level of uncertainties in data for analysis is dealt with for rational decision making. Possible outcomes of such research visits include collected data for further research in the UK, better understanding of logistics management, supply chain management and container transport in China for collaboration with Chinese organisations and development of joint proposals for external funding.

Who will benefit from this research? The stakeholders in the maritime industry will be the main industrial sector benefiting from this project. To increase the competitiveness, maritime logistics operations have to be run in an efficient and effective way. Maritime logistics operators have to control and to possibly reduce cost whilst managing risk, safety, environment impact and reliability in their operations in order to satisfy the regulatory requirements. Such multiple performance criteria have to be taken into account simultaneously when developing an operational strategy. The proposed investigation of the concerned subject areas in this research will help to achieve such tasks. From a long term viewpoint, the success of this project will further help ensure the UK's leading position in maritime logistics management. How will they benefit from this research? The delegates of the Maritime Logistics Symposium covering a wide spectrum of the stakeholders in the maritime industry will benefit from this research through sharing the research findings, experiences obtained, lessons learnt and being aware of the latest development via planetary sessions and panel discussions. The UK participating organisations will benefit from formulating useful links with those in China, both industrial and academic partners, for collaboration, or vice versa. Both of the Chinese Universities have been closely working with Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) and with large shipping companies, e.g. Orient Overseas Container Line Co. Ltd (OOCL). UoL, LJMU and the two universities in Shanghai will also benefit from jointly organising the Maritime Logistics Symposium and also the research visits of Dr Li, Dr Ismail, Prof. Wang and Dr Yang in terms of information sharing and networking for formulating new research projects. The key results subject to further investigations will be disseminated through both conferences together with journal publications. What will be done to ensure that they have the opportunity to benefit from this research? A general measure is to ensure that the subject areas dealt with in the Symposium pertinently address the needs in the maritime logistics studies. In doing so, it is possible to stimulate warm and constructive debates and discussions, facilitating networking between the participants of the Symposium. In particular, UoL and LJMU will be closely working with the two Shanghai universities through the research visits of Dr Li, Dr Ismail, Prof. Wang and Dr Yang in order to develop specific collaborative research programmes. All the collaborators are keen to make their contribution to and be engaged closely into the project if funded. In general, communications and engagement with the beneficiaries will be conducted through: 1. One news letter sent out to wider potential beneficiaries to highlight the research outcomes. 2. Project websites to promote the research. 3. Follow-on maritime logistics symposium once every two years by the integrated research network to be built at this event series. The potential impact from the research outputs will be identified mainly by delegates of the Symposium from industry. It is expected that industrial needs will be clearly identified through the planetary sessions and panel discussions of the Symposium. Then possible networks between industrial organisations and the academic investigators of the proposal will be formulated to develop the corresponding research for further exploitation and eventual application of the research outcomes. Through the research visits of Dr Li, Dr Ismail, Prof. Wang and Dr Yang at the two universities in Shanghai, academic collaboration will also be strengthened in the areas of research data collection, maritime logistics chain between China and the UK and joint research projects of mutual interests.