IFORS Prize for OR in Development 2017


****DEADLINE EXTENDED TO DECEMBER 18, 2016****

IFORS Prize for OR in Development
IFORS is pleased to announce that this long-standing Prize will be awarded again during the 21st Triennial conference on “OR/Analytics for a better world” to be held in Quebec City, Canada from 17-21 July 2017.

• It will be 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.

Important details about the competition follow:

Topic of paper
• The paper must describe a practical OR application and have been aimed at helping development in developing countries. The work should demonstrate how the researchers have assisted a specific organization in its decision-making processes with regard to education, health, and other basic services, water supply, technology, resource use (physical or financial), infrastructure, agriculture, industry, or environmental sustainability, and how the researchers have helped the organization improve performance within local constraints and limited resources. It should also demonstrate original features in methodology or implementation

• The paper should include 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 should be 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.

Judging Criteria

• Qualifying papers will be evaluated on the following criteria: problem definition, creativity and appropriateness of approach, MS/OR/Analytics 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 in English.

Other Information• 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 Quebec City, Canada from 17-21 July 2017.

• Finalists’ registration fees (one per team of authors) will be sponsored by IFORS.

• 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 and submit to the special issue called “IFORS Prize 2017”.

Other inquiries should be sent directly to the Prize Chair:
Prof. Mikael Rönnqvist
Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering
Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada
E-mail:mikael.ronnqvist@gmc.ulaval.ca

Important Dates
Last date of submission of the full paper: December 18, 2016
Finalists will be notified by: February 28, 2017
Date of oral presentation: July 17, 2017