The LANCS (Lancaster, Nottingham, Cardiff and Southampton) Initiative in Foundational Operational Research: Building Theory for Practice
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Management Science
Abstract
The United Kingdom is the home of Operational Research (OR) and it maintains an application-oriented research tradition which is both true to its roots and which is also highly distinctive, if not unique. Many industries and public services are the beneficiaries of this effort, not least healthcare, finance, transport and defence. However, the EPSRC/ESRC 2004 International Review of the Research Status of OR in the UK warned that this leading position in applied work in OR could be jeopardised in the absence of a critical mass of researchers developing underpinning theory.In the LANCS (Lancaster, Nottingham, Cardiff, Southampton) initiative, four universities, which have been at the forefront of UK research in OR, have committed to a major expansion of research capacity in its theoretical foundations, supported by the additional resources available as a result of the current Science and Innovation call. The universities concerned have already worked together in the creation of NATCOR, an EPSRC-supported initiative aimed at strengthening doctoral programmes in the mathematics of OR. They have also evidenced their commitment to the subject by recent decisions (in advance of this call) to invest substantially in it.In total, the LANCS initiative will oversee additional new investment of approximately 12M through the five year period of the award, of which more than half comes from the institutions themselves. All the institutions have also committed to sustaining this additional capacity beyond the five year EPSRC funded period. This will have a major impact on the subject. The initiative aims to build and maintain a substantial new national capacity in its theoretical base by establishing this major cross-institutional and multi-disciplinary collaboration. Such a programme is crucial to support the health of the application oriented research which was highlighted as such a strength by the 2004 international review. Indeed, the main motivation of this proposal is to underpin the health of the UK research base in this critically important area. This far sighted initiative aims to establish theoretical advances in the field which are informed by, and which feed into, real applications.
Organisations
Publications
Galli L
(2013)
A compact variant of the QCR method for quadratically constrained quadratic 0-1 programs
in Optimization Letters
Zografos K
(2010)
A decision support system for total airport operations management and planning
in Journal of Advanced Transportation
Fomeni F
(2014)
A Dynamic Programming Heuristic for the Quadratic Knapsack Problem
in INFORMS Journal on Computing
Glazebrook K
(2009)
A Generalized Gittins Index for a Class of Multiarmed Bandits with General Resource Requirements
in Mathematics of Operations Research
Lin K
(2013)
A Graph Patrol Problem with Random Attack Times
in Operations Research
Elhag A
(2015)
A grouping hyper-heuristic framework: Application on graph colouring
in Expert Systems with Applications
Amaral A
(2012)
A polyhedral approach to the single row facility layout problem
in Mathematical Programming
He F
(2014)
A two-stage stochastic mixed-integer program modelling and hybrid solution approach to portfolio selection problems
in Information Sciences
Letchford A
(2014)
An aggressive reduction scheme for the simple plant location problem
in European Journal of Operational Research
Giandomenico M
(2008)
An application of the Lovász-Schrijver M(K, K) operator to the stable set problem
in Mathematical Programming
McGillicuddy D.
(2014)
An investigation into the use of haskell for dynamic programming
in PATAT 2014 - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling
Izady N
(2011)
Approximate analysis of non-stationary loss queues and networks of loss queues with general service time distributions
in European Journal of Operational Research
Grothey A
(2012)
Approximate dynamic programming with Bézier Curves/Surfaces for Top-percentile Traffic Routing
in European Journal of Operational Research
Onggo S
(2012)
Behavioural modelling of career progression in the European Commission
in European Journal of Operational Research
Letchford A
(2010)
Binary positive semidefinite matrices and associated integer polytopes
in Mathematical Programming
Letchford A
(2013)
Compact formulations of the Steiner Traveling Salesman Problem and related problems
in European Journal of Operational Research
Galli L
(2012)
Complexity results for the gap inequalities for the max-cut problem
in Operations Research Letters
Fortini M
(2010)
Computing compatible tours for the symmetric traveling salesman problem
in Mathematical Programming Computation
Caprara A
(2011)
Decorous Lower Bounds for Minimum Linear Arrangement
in INFORMS Journal on Computing
Mu Q
(2011)
Disrupted capacitated vehicle routing problem with order release delay
in Annals of Operations Research
Mu Q
(2017)
Disruption management of the vehicle routing problem with vehicle breakdown
in Journal of the Operational Research Society
Feng Y
(2010)
Dynamic coordination of production planning and sales admission control in the presence of a spot market
in Naval Research Logistics (NRL)
Chen L
(2011)
Dynamic Pricing and Inventory Control in a Make-to-Stock Queue With Information on the Production Status
in IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering
Hodge D
(2011)
Dynamic resource allocation in a multi-product make-to-stock production system
in Queueing Systems
Argon N
(2009)
DYNAMIC ROUTING OF CUSTOMERS WITH GENERAL DELAY COSTS IN A MULTISERVER QUEUING SYSTEM
in Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences
| Description | The LANCS Initiative has grown research capability in foundational OR in the UK. 22 permanent academic posts (lecturer, senior lecturer and professor) have been established in the four universities (Lancaster, Nottingham, Cardiff and Southampton). Significant progress has been achieved in the six research clusters (Healthcare, Optimisation, Transport and Logistics, Heuristic Understanding, Stochastic Modelling and Systems to Build Systems). For details of collaboration, dissemination and research impact, please refer to the 60-month report at the URL below. |
| Exploitation Route | Please refer to the LANCS Initiative 60-month report at the URL below. Please refer to the LANCS Initiative 60-month report at the URL below. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Transport |
| URL | http://www.lancs-initiative.ac.uk/page/211/60-Month-Report.htm |
| Description | Impact has been achieved in the following areas: Air transportation Health care Revenue Management Green logistics |
| First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Education,Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Retail,Security and Diplomacy,Transport |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |