Research
Ocean-plastic optimisation research wins INFORMS sustainability award
Research by Analytics for a Better World, the University of Amsterdam, London Business School and The Ocean Cleanup has received the INFORMS ENRE Best Publication Award in Environment and Sustainability.
The award recognises the outstanding work accomplished through the article Optimising the Path Towards Plastic-Free Oceans, published in Operations Research.
This research project was led by Dick den Hertog, Director of Science and Impact at ABW and Professor at the Amsterdam Business School, together with Jean Pauphilet and Baizhi Song from London Business School and Yannick Pham and Bruno Sainte-Rose from The Ocean Cleanup in Rotterdam.
This project focused on how ocean-plastic collection systems can be routed more effectively. Because plastic concentrations and operating conditions change over time, the researchers developed an optimisation model that determines where collection systems should move to increase the amount of plastic collected.
This is a clear application of prescriptive analytics: using data and mathematical models to support decisions about what action to take next, rather than only predicting what may happen.
INFORMS is the largest professional association for the decision and data sciences. They are a collective of academic and industry experts in the data and decision sciences, including operations research, analytics, management science, economics, behavioural science, statistics, artificial intelligence, data science, applied mathematics, and more. The association's core belief is that all members work to help make smarter decisions for a better world.
The INFORMS Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment (ENRE) Best Publication Award recognises research in environment and sustainability. The award will be presented at the annual INFORMS meeting in San Francisco in November 2026.
For ABW, the recognition highlights the value of combining academic research with operational knowledge to develop analytics that can be used on real environmental challenges.
Read more about how analytics can be used to speed up the cleaning of our oceans here.
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