Professor Maria Paola Scaparra and her collaborators have recently been awarded an EPSRC grant for their research project. <\/p>\n
Professor Maria Paola Scaparra<\/a> and her collaborators have recently been awarded an EPSRC<\/a> grant to work on a project titled \u201cImproving Community Resilience and Sustainability Through Operational Research Capacity Building in Southeast Asia\u201d<\/em> (CREST-OR).<\/p>\n The project involves 16 investigators from 10 institutions in the UK, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and Vietnam and is supported by the UK Operational Research (OR) Society<\/a>. CREST-OR\u2019s aim is to help South-East Asia\u00a0(SEA) countries build research capacity in mathematical OR tools to improve community resilience to natural disasters and achieve sustainable development objectives. Specifically, CREST-OR will help SEA Countries address challenges in the areas of disaster management, resilient transport infrastructure,\u00a0food supply security or smart cities.<\/p>\n This project will build a network of OR researchers across the UK and SEA countries to help this last group develop the skills necessary to become self-sustaining OR researchers. This will be achieved through the mentoring of researchers at\u00a0various career stages, by developing a portfolio of co-designed research proposals, forming OR research units and creating an active and independent OR community in SEA. This will lay the groundwork for the establishment of a new SEA OR Society that will link directly with the Association of Asia-Pacific OR Societies to advance the practice of OR for sustainable development.<\/p>\n Professor Scaparra said “I am really thrilled to lead this multi-institutional project and keep working with South-East Asian researchers and practitioners. I have previously worked on a project using OR methodologies to optimise flood mitigation investments in Vietnam. This project was a demonstrated success and clearly proved that OR has a lot to offer for addressing global challenges in developing countries. CREST-OR will go one step further and help SEA countries build their own OR expertise and establish a vibrant community of OR researchers working together to address urgent development needs<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n Learn more about the Management Science Research Group<\/a> at Kent Business School<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"