News

This special issue calls for papers that showcase analytics and OR applications with an emphasis on economic, environmental, and social sustainability considerations in global supply chains. While the Special Issue is associated with the EURO 2025 conference, we welcome submissions from the entire community of academics and practitioners working on OR/analytics approaches for sustainable supply chain management. Papers should be focused on operations research, quantitative modelling, and/or analytical approaches applied to sustainable supply chains and also fit the general scope of the journal. Topics of interest are, amongst others, due diligence and sustainability reporting obligations, investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, impact of digitalization, circular economy concepts, sustainable sourcing of raw materials in global supply chains, transparency and collaboration, and managing risks related to sustainability.

Beginning of submissions: March 1, 2025.

Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2025.

Further information can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/318809/special-issue-towards-sustainability-in-global-supply-chains-analytics-and-or-applications-at-euro-2025.

To promote a high-quality scientific program at the 34th EURO conference to be held in Leeds, UK from June 22 to 25, 2025, we are co-organizing a stream on Circular & Sustainable Supply Chains. We would be happy to see many presentations from the members of the EWG within our stream.

The Circular & Sustainable Supply Chains stream aims to collect contributions focused on the development and use of OR methodologies in the context of the circular economy and sustainable supply chains. Contributions can range from methodological developments to address specific challenges arising from circularity and sustainability to the application of existing OR methods and tools to support circular and sustainable supply chains.

Please participate actively by submitting a (contributed) abstract (max. 1500 characters, including spaces) of your talk via the submission system (https://www.euro-online.org/conf/euro34/) selecting the stream Circular & Sustainable Supply Chains. Feel free to also invite potentially interested colleagues or students to submit their work.

Part of this Circular & Sustainable Supply Chains stream will be organized in collaboration with the Making an Impact stream organized by the EURO Practitioner’s Forum. If you would like to present about a real-world application of OR in the context of Circular & Sustainable Supply Chains, please use the submission code 17a08613 instead of selecting our stream in the contributed abstract submission form. For this session, presentations are expected to also discuss what was particularly challenging in the application, what adaptations were necessary to make solutions effective in practice, and how interactions with customers and users were managed (in addition to the decision problem that was addressed and how this was done). 

The submission deadline is March 8, 2025.

We hope to be able to organize many interesting sessions on specific topics based on the abstract submissions. If you are however interested in organizing a special session yourself (consisting of up to 4 presentations) within the Circular & Sustainable Supply Chain stream, please contact Renzo Akkerman (renzo.akkerman@wur.nl).

Date: June 30−July 4, 2025

Venue: University of Graz, Austria

The PhD School on Sustainable Supply Chains offers an active forum for PhD students and early career researchers to enhance their knowledge in facilitating Operations Research methods for sustainable supply chain management, especially from a multi-criteria (triple bottom line) and an interdisciplinary (life cycle sustainability assessment, circular economy) perspective. It is organized by the EURO Working Group on Sustainable Supply Chains (EWG-SSC) in cooperation with the Department of Operations and Information Systems, University of Graz and co-sponsored by the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO), the Austrian OR Society (ÖGOR), and the University of Graz.

Target Audience: PhD Students striving to enhance their knowledge in sustainable supply chain management; motivated to develop OR tools that support decision making towards sustainable supply; wanting to discuss and present research ideas on the topic. Motivated early career researchers may also be accepted if places are available.

Program Contents: In-class lectures, tutorials, and supervised training on selected topics at the interface of Operations Research and sustainable supply chains; opportunity to discuss own PhD research with peers and expert lecturers from the field; supervised work on case studies – solutions developed by participants will be presented in front of an expert panel at the end of the summer school.

Poster presentations at the 5th Conference of the Euro Working Group on Sustainable Supply Chains (SustSC2025) are highly welcome. SustSC2025 will take place from July 4 to July 5, 2025 in Graz.

Vacancies & Acceptance: There are 25 seats available. Due to the limited capacity, there is an application process for those that would like to participate. Preference will be given to applicants who have not previously received support from EURO for other PhD schools.

Application: To apply to the EURO PhD School on Sustainable Supply Chains, the candidates should be from a EURO member society country, or studying in a EURO member society country, and need to submit the following documents:

1. Application letter, including:

• Name, affiliation, and email-address,
• PhD program you are enrolled in, current stage of studies, as well as your PhD supervisors’ names,
• Background in Sustainability and in Operations Research, and
• Motivation to attend the PhD School.

2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Recommendation letter from the PhD supervisor

Application deadline: February 14, 2025

Notification of acceptance: End of February, 2025

Fees & Rights: The registration fee is 150 EUR per participant. It will cover accommodation, meals (breakfast, coffee break, lunch, and dinner), conference material, travel within the school activities, and social activities.

• Accommodation is provided in single- and two-bedroom apartments.
• Travel costs should be covered by the participants, either by themselves or through external funding.
• The fee does not include insurance for participants.

Contact: For more information, please visit the website of the PhD School (https://sustainable-supply-chains.uni-graz.at/en) or send an e-mail to sustsc2025@uni-graz.at.

Date: July 4−July 5, 2025

Venue: University of Graz, Austria

We invite you to submit abstracts for presentations at the 5th Conference on Sustainable Supply Chains (SustSC 2025). It is organized by the EURO Working Group on Sustainable Supply Chains (EWG-SSC) in cooperation with the Department of Operations and Information Systems, University of Graz and co-sponsored by the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO) and University of Graz.

Purpose: SustSC 2025 offers the European and international sustainable supply chains community opportunities to present state-of-the-art developments and to discuss current challenges in sustainable supply chains. Researchers and practitioners interested in the implementation of sustainable supply chains are welcome.

Research: We invite works on the state of the research art and innovative approaches for sustainable supply chain management. Presentations should tackle Operations Research methodologies as well as applications to sustainable supply chains.

Abstract submission deadline: February 14, 2025

Notification of acceptance: End of February, 2025

Contact: For more information, please visit the website of the Conference (https://sustainable-supply-chains.uni-graz.at/en) or send an e-mail to sustsc2025@uni-graz.at.

The EURO Working Group on Sustainable Supply Chains is announcing the call for nominations for the Jacqueline Bloemhof PhD Thesis Award on Sustainable Supply Chains 2025. The PhD thesis should predominantly focus on applications of operational research techniques in the field of sustainable supply chains. The thesis must have been examined and approved by a European university between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2024.

Application: Candidates must apply via email to the EURO Working Group on Sustainable Supply Chains (SustainableSC@om.rwth-aachen.de) by the deadline of the competition (February 28, 2025) containing the following information:

• An executive summary of the PhD thesis highlighting the relevance of the work for the topics of the EWG-SustSC of not more than 1,000 words,
• an electronic copy of the PhD Thesis,
• a letter from their main PhD supervisor recommending the candidate for consideration for this award and confirming that the candidate meets the criteria for eligibility for the competition, and
•  a certificate of the university confirming the final approval of the thesis.

We expect the winner to present her/his work at the 5th Conference on Sustainable Supply Chains, to be held at the University of Graz, Austria, on 4−5 July 2025.

Deadlines:

Examination and acceptance of PhD thesis to apply for the award: Between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2024

Application deadline: February 28, 2025

Notification of the decision of the award committee: On or before April 30, 2025

Award Committee: The Board of the EWG on Sustainable Supply Chains decides the winner based on a recommendation by the PhD Thesis Award Committee. This decision cannot be challenged.

Felix Papier and Yann Bouchery would like to invite all interested researchers to the first Paris Circular Operations Workshop, which will be held Thursday 30 January 2025 at the Maison des Canaux in Paris, France.

The workshop is open to any operations management researcher (faculty, post-docs, PhD students, ...) with a special interest in the circular economy. The program comprises keynote talks and technical sessions with short 10–12 minute presentations. There will be lunch and dinner, and a company visit (tbc) on the following morning (Friday 31 January).

Confirmed keynote speakers are:

1. Moritz Fleischmann (U Mannheim)
2. Jan Fransoo (Tilburg U)
3. Sandra Transchel (KLU)

Registration is possible via the workshop website: https://pcircops25.sciencesconf.org/. 

Note that, the space of the location being limited, there will be a maximum number of participants we can register. 

The 33rd European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2024) was held from June 30 to July 3 on the campus of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Copenhagen. Nearly 3,000 participants attended the conference.

As the EWG on Sustainable Supply Chains, we organized two streams, one on Circular Economy, Remanufacturing and Recycling and one on Sustainable Supply Chains. Both streams ran throughout the conference, with a total of 24 sessions and more than 90 presentations. This is by far an all-time high for us. A big thank you to all the members of our EWG who contributed to the great success of the streams. And thanks to the organizers of the DTU for organizing this successful conference. We had a great time.

Next year, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of EURO, hosted by the University of Leeds: https://euro2025leeds.uk/. The EURO 2025 conference will take place from June 22 to June 25, 2025.

To promote a high-quality scientific program at the 33rd EURO conference to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 30 to July 3, 2024, we are organizing a stream on Sustainable Supply Chains and a stream on Circular Economy, Remanufacturing and Recycling. We would be happy to see many presentations from the members of the EWG within our streams.

Within the streams, we seek contributions to cover recent advances on the following topics (among others):

• Sustainable supply chains
• Bio-based supply chains
• Sustainable transportation systems
• Closed-loop supply chains
• Food supply chains
• Multi-objective optimization for sustainability
• Interdisciplinary approaches for sustainability
• Resource-efficient manufacturing
• Operational challenges in the circular economy
• Design, planning and operation of ecosystems
• Sustainable logistics

Please participate actively by submitting an abstract (max. 1500 characters, including spaces) of your talk via the submission system (https://www.euro-online.org/conf/euro33/) using the invitation code a90dc833 for the stream on Sustainable Supply Chains or the invitation code 9331adc6 for the stream on Circular Economy, Remanufacturing and Recycling. Feel free to also invite potentially interested colleagues or students to submit their work.

The submission deadline is March 3, 2024.

We hope to be able to organize many interesting sessions on specific topics based on the abstract submissions. If you are however interested in organizing a special session yourself (consisting of up to 4 presentations) within our Sustainable Supply Chain stream, please contact Karsten Kieckhäfer (karsten.kieckhaefer@fernuni-hagen.de). For the Circular Economy, Remanufacturing and Recycling stream, please contact Renzo Akkerman (renzo.akkerman@wur.nl).