IFORS Prize for OR in Development

Invitation and Call for Papers
IFORS is pleased to announce that the Prize will be awarded during the 20thth Triennial conference on “The Art of Modeling” to be held in Barcelona, Spain from 13-18 July 2014.

• Awarded at the close of the IFORS Triennial Conference and carries with it a grand prize of US$ 4,000.00 and a runner-up prize of US$ 2,000.00
• The finalist papers are automatically considered for publication in the IFORS Publication, International Transactions in Operational Research (ITOR). Publication is contingent upon the usual refereeing process. Authors of these papers agree that the first right to publish their papers lies with ITOR; as such, they will not publish the same until and unless they receive permission to do so by the ITOR editor.
  • The paper describes a practical OR application in a developing country, conducted to assist a specific organization in its decision-making process with regard to education, health, and other basic services, water, technology, resource use (physical or financial), infrastructure, agricultural/industrialization, environmental sustainability with original features in methodology or implementation for development in developing countries. The idea is to optimize the development with the constraints and limited resources.
  • The paper includes some description of the application’s social context and its impact on the decision making process or on the organization for which it was conducted. Where appropriate, the relevance of the country’s state of development to the study is addressed. A stress on developmental issues will be an important factor in the judging. Papers of a purely technical nature, or those, which have no relevance in the developmental context, will not be considered.
  • Qualifying papers will be evaluated on the following criteria: problem definition, creativity and appropriateness of approach, MS/OR content, stress on developmental issues, innovative methodology, impact of the study, paper organization and structure, participation of local researchers and quality of written and (if selected as finalist) oral presentation.
  • Principal authors and presenters of any nationality are welcome. If selected to be among the finalists, the entry must be presented by one of the principal authors during the IFORS Triennial Conference to be held in Barcelona, Spain from 13-18 July 2014.
  • Finalists’ registration fees will be sponsored by IFORS. For finalists who are nationals of developing countries, a grant for living expenses may be requested but cannot be guaranteed.
  • All contributions must be submitted using the submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/itor, indicating in their cover letters that they are intended for this competition.

Important details about the competition follow: Topic of paper

Judging Criteria

Other Information

Other inquiries should be sent directly to the Prize Chair:
Prof. Andres Weintraub
Professor Department of Industrial Engineering
University of Chile
P.O. Box 2777
Santiago, Chile
E-mail: aweintra@dii.uchile.cl
Last date of submission of the full paper: November 30, 2013
Finalists will be notified by: February 28, 2014.
Date of presentations: July 14, 2014.