Research Network on Emergency Resources Supply Chain (REMESH)
The REMESH project aims to bring together an international team of researchers with a wide variety of expertise in supply chain risk management, hazard identification and safety assessment to tackle the challenges surrounding Emergency Resources Supply Chain (ERSC) vulnerabilities.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No [823759]
The website is created under project work-package 2 (WP2), Deliverable No 6 (D6).
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Developing a framework to capture and minimise the vulnerability of ERSC in large-scale natural disasters
The ability of national and international agencies to cope effectively with large-scale natural disasters is becoming more and more important. The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA, 2016) reports an increase in the frequency and impact of large-scale natural disasters in both the developed and developing world. Recent extreme events such as Storm Jonas (2016, USA), the earthquake and tsunami in Tōhoku (2011) and New Zealand (2016) have demonstrated the need for a rapid and effective external response to complex events, and the impact on the human population when this is delayed or inadequate. ERSC has a crucial role in promoting the effective application of disaster management, and differs from conventional supply chains in several ways.
The unique characteristics of ERSC include:
- Having to analyse all the demands in a very short period of time, using limited resources
- Having to be designed, constructed and maintained in order to support continuous and smooth materials and information flows
- Having to include a set of diverse plans, resources, authorities, agencies, and their associated human resources
A recent review has emphasized the relative scarcity of the literature on these topics, and research on ERSC vulnerability/resilience is particularly underdeveloped. This project will develop a decision support framework to capture and minimize the vulnerability of ERSC in large-scale natural disasters, and increase resilience when impacted by adverse circumstances.
This joint collaboration will:
- explore and understand the nature of ERSC vulnerability and the root causes of failures
- develop and enhance a framework for identifying the vulnerable components and evaluating the performance
The research results will facilitate the analysis of the relationship between ERSC vulnerability and capacity, and therefore increase resilience to adverse circumstance.
Scientific objectives
- To develop cooling and monitoring technologies of cold chain management systems, from an eco-friendly perspective, integrated with global supply chains in delivering sustainable food security and supply chain resilience
- To investigate the key components of emergency resources supply chain by determining whether an individual component is specific to one response function or supply capacity, or has more general effects on multiple parts of the chain
- To use big data technologies to investigate and understand the nature of ERSC and its behaviours ; to investigate the characteristics of ERSC, and conduct big data analysis to substantially enhance various disaster response aspects
- To investigate the modelling of multiple criteria such as reliability, environmental criticality, economic impact and social sustainability of ERSC of a diverse nature, and develop risk-based decision-making models for their integrated consideration
- To conduct cost-benefit analyse in ERSC for achieving the integrated sustainable supply and sourcing solutions
- To identify pathways of resilience reaction to vulnerability in ERSC based on the potential mapping between local sources and market demands
- To integrate research outcomes such as tools and models from all WPs into toolkits and strategies and best practice into a project handbook for dissemination and demonstration
General objectives
- To draw together outstanding academic research teams from Europe and Asia and harness their diverse multi-disciplinary skills and expertise in the field of ERSC management in relation to large scale natural disasters
- To create a platform for research training and transfer of knowledge activities, both within the network domain and towards the public domain, crossing inter-sectoral boundaries to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of people trained in this field to meet the challenges ahead
- To build joint collaborative projects for the development of novel risk modelling and decision- making techniques, aimed at supporting sustainable emergency response management subjected to various aggressive environments
- To provide early stage researchers (ESRs) with intensive training through research programmes, as well as complementary skills training, in order to become trainers of the future in a multi-disciplinary field of academic, industrial and societal importance; and by doing so enhancing the ESRs’ career prospects
- To develop new and innovative models for ERSC management in relation to large-scale natural disasters. To continue and intensify long-term interdisciplinary research resulting in safer, more effective design and operation of ERSC management systems. To develop an integrated package of practical tools, inclusive of novel safety assessment and risk control methods, for the investigation, improvement and optimization of ERSC systems and operations
- To establish collaborative mechanisms for long-term partnerships between European and Asian researchers and institutes, to develop and offer education and training courses, addressing emergency logistics and supply chain management knowledge and technology enhancement
Key contacts of the REMESH project
Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Dr Jun Ren j.ren@ljmu.ac.uk
Professor Jin Wang j.wang@ljmu.ac.uk
Ian Pennington i.pennington@ljmu.ac.uk
University of Manchester, UK
Professor Dongling Xu ling.xu@manchester.ac.uk
Professor Jianbo Yang
Dr Nadia Paramichail
Lund University, Sweden
Professor Andreas Norman andreas.norman@tlog.lth.se
Professor Henrik Tehler
Dublin City University, Ireland
Dr Malcolm Brady malcom.brady@dcu.ie
Dr Paul Davis
University of Bonn, Germany
Dr Ing Judith Kreyenschmidt j.Kreyenschmidt@uni-bonn.de
Dr Ulrike Herbert
Ms Antonia Albrecht
Universidad de Granada, Spain
Professor Daniel Arias-Arianda darias@ugr.es
Professor Luis Miguel Molina-Fernanez lmolina@ugr.es
Mahidol University, Thailand
Dr Jirapan Liangrkapart jirapan.lia@mahidol.ac.th
Dr Duangpun Kritchanchai Singkarin
Dr Waressara Weerawat
Dr Trakarn Prapaspongsa
Dr Ronnachai Sirovetnukul
Dr Tuangyot Supeekit
Vietnam National University, Vietnam
Prof Ha-Nam Nguyen namnh@vnu.edn.vn
Prof Dinh Van Dung
Dr Thi-Hau Nguyen
Wuhan University of Technology, China
Prof Xinping Yan xpyan@whut.edu.cn
Dr Di Zhang zhang@whut.edu.cn
Workplan - detailed implementation
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