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
Glazebrook K
(2016)
Monotone Policies and Indexability for Bidirectional Restless Bandits
in Advances in Applied Probability
Karapetyan D
(2015)
Lessons from building an automated pre-departure sequencer for airports
in Annals of Operations Research
Jacko P
(2013)
Resource capacity allocation to stochastic dynamic competitors: knapsack problem for perishable items and index-knapsack heuristic
in Annals of Operations Research
Mu Q
(2011)
Disrupted capacitated vehicle routing problem with order release delay
in Annals of Operations Research
Wallace S
(2009)
Stochastic programming and the option of doing it differently
in Annals of Operations Research
Kaut M
(2009)
Shape-based scenario generation using copulas
in Computational Management Science
Thapalia B
(2011)
Single source single-commodity stochastic network design
in Computational Management Science
Jiang H
(2010)
Network capacity management under competition
in Computational Optimization and Applications
Letchford A
(2012)
Fast bounding procedures for large instances of the Simple Plant Location Problem
in Computers & Operations Research
Black D
(2013)
The time-dependent prize-collecting arc routing problem
in Computers & Operations Research
Wen L
(2015)
Minimum cost VRP with time-dependent speed data and congestion charge
in Computers & Operations Research
Letchford A
(2009)
Exploiting sparsity in pricing routines for the capacitated arc routing problem
in Computers & Operations Research
Thapalia B
(2012)
Single-commodity network design with random edge capacities
in European Journal of Operational Research
Izady N
(2012)
Setting staffing requirements for time dependent queueing networks: The case of accident and emergency departments
in European Journal of Operational Research
Qian J
(2016)
Fuel emissions optimization in vehicle routing problems with time-varying speeds
in European Journal of Operational Research
Letchford A
(2014)
An aggressive reduction scheme for the simple plant location problem
in European Journal of Operational Research
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
Fliege J
(2012)
Operations research in the space industry
in European Journal of Operational Research
Onggo S
(2012)
Behavioural modelling of career progression in the European Commission
in European Journal of Operational Research
Wen L
(2014)
Finding a minimum cost path between a pair of nodes in a time-varying road network with a congestion charge
in European Journal of Operational Research
Letchford A
(2013)
Compact formulations of the Steiner Traveling Salesman Problem and related problems
in European Journal of Operational Research
Fetta A
(2018)
Predicting adolescent social networks to stop smoking in secondary schools
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
Elhag A
(2015)
A grouping hyper-heuristic framework: Application on graph colouring
in Expert Systems with Applications
Fletcher A
(2009)
What is a 'generic' hospital model?--a comparison of 'generic' and 'specific' hospital models of emergency patient flows.
in Health care management science
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
Rahman MA
(2022)
Quercetin attenuates viral infections by interacting with target proteins and linked genes in chemicobiological models.
in In silico pharmacology
Thapalia B
(2017)
Single-Commodity Network Design with Stochastic Demand and Multiple Sources and Sinks
in INFOR: Information Systems and Operational Research
He F
(2014)
A two-stage stochastic mixed-integer program modelling and hybrid solution approach to portfolio selection problems
in Information Sciences
Caprara A
(2011)
Decorous Lower Bounds for Minimum Linear Arrangement
in INFORMS Journal on Computing
Fomeni F
(2014)
A Dynamic Programming Heuristic for the Quadratic Knapsack Problem
in INFORMS Journal on Computing
Thapalia B
(2009)
Using inventory to handle risks in the supply of oil to Nepal
in International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling
Aas B
(2010)
Management of Logistics Planning
in International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management
Wallace S
(2011)
Flexibility, information structure, options, and market power in robust supply chains
in International Journal of Production Economics
Shen H
(2011)
The component procurement problem for the loss-averse manufacturer with spot purchase
in International Journal of Production Economics
Vaagen H
(2011)
Modelling consumer-directed substitution
in International Journal of Production Economics
Zografos K
(2010)
A decision support system for total airport operations management and planning
in Journal of Advanced Transportation
D J Worthington (Co-Author)
(2010)
Operations research diffusion in healthcare management
in Journal of Health Care Finance
Meissner J
(2010)
Pricing structure optimization in mixed restricted/unrestricted fare environments
in Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
Harwood K
(2017)
Investigating the use of metaheuristics for solving single vehicle routing problems with time-varying traversal costs
in Journal of the Operational Research Society
Worthington D
(2017)
Reflections on queue modelling from the last 50 years
in Journal of the Operational Research Society
Chassioti E
(2017)
Effects of state-dependent balking on multi-server non-stationary queueing systems
in Journal of the Operational Research Society
Mu Q
(2017)
Disruption management of the vehicle routing problem with vehicle breakdown
in Journal of the Operational Research Society
Maden W
(2017)
Vehicle routing and scheduling with time-varying data: A case study
in Journal of the Operational Research Society
Letchford A
(2010)
On a class of metrics related to graph layout problems
in Linear Algebra and its Applications
Jiang H
(2012)
Performance-Based Contracts for Outpatient Medical Services
in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
Aas B
(2009)
The role of supply vessels in offshore logistics
in Maritime Economics & Logistics
Amaral A
(2012)
A polyhedral approach to the single row facility layout problem
in Mathematical Programming
Caprara A
(2010)
New techniques for cost sharing in combinatorial optimization games
in Mathematical Programming
Burer S
(2012)
Unbounded convex sets for non-convex mixed-integer quadratic programming
in Mathematical Programming
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 |