The LANCS (Lancaster, Nottingham, Cardiff and Southampton) Initiative in Foundational Operational Research: Building Theory for Practice

英国是运筹学（OR）的发源地，它保持着一种面向应用的研究传统，这种传统既忠实于它的根源，也是非常独特的。许多行业和公共服务都是这一努力的受益者，尤其是医疗保健、金融、运输和国防。然而，EPSRC/ESRC 2004年英国OR研究状况国际评论警告说，如果没有足够数量的研究人员开发支撑理论，OR在应用工作中的领先地位可能会受到威胁。（兰开斯特、诺丁汉、卡迪夫、南安普顿）倡议，四所大学，它们一直走在英国OR研究的前列，在当前科学与创新呼吁提供的额外资源的支持下，致力于大幅扩展其理论基础的研究能力。有关大学已经合作创建了NATCOR，这是EPSRC支持的一项旨在加强OR数学博士课程的倡议。他们还通过最近的决定（在这次电话会议之前）证明了他们对这一主题的承诺，即在这方面进行大量投资。总的来说，LANCS计划将在五年的奖励期内监督约1200万美元的额外新投资，其中一半以上来自机构本身。所有机构还承诺在EPSRC资助的五年期之后维持这一额外能力。这将对这个问题产生重大影响。该倡议旨在通过建立这一重要的跨机构和多学科合作，在其理论基础上建立和维持一个新的国家能力。这样一个计划对于支持面向应用的研究的健康至关重要，2004年国际审查强调了这一优势。事实上，这一提议的主要动机是巩固英国在这一至关重要领域的研究基地的健康。这一有远见的倡议旨在建立该领域的理论进步，这些理论进步是由真实的应用所告知的，并被应用于实际应用。

The United Kingdom is the home of Operational Research (OR) and itmaintains an application-oriented research tradition which is both true to its roots and which is also highly distinctive, if not unique. Many industries and public services are the beneficiaries of this effort, not least healthcare, finance, transport and defence. However, the EPSRC/ESRC 2004 International Review of the Research Status of OR in the UK warned that this leading position in applied work in OR could be jeopardised in the absence of a critical mass of researchers developing underpinning theory.In the LANCS (Lancaster, Nottingham, Cardiff, Southampton) initiative, four universities, which have been at the forefront of UK research in OR, have committed to a major expansion of research capacity in its theoretical foundations, supported by the additional resources available as a result of the current Science and Innovation call. The universities concerned have already worked together in the creation of NATCOR, an EPSRC-supported initiative aimed at strengthening doctoral programmes in the mathematics of OR. They have also evidenced their commitment to the subject by recent decisions (in advance of this call) to invest substantially in it.In total, the LANCS initiative will oversee additional new investment of approximately 12M through the five year period of the award, of which more than half comes from the institutions themselves. All the institutions have also committed to sustaining this additional capacity beyond the five year EPSRC funded period. This will have a major impact on the subject. The initiative aims to build and maintain a substantial new national capacity in its theoretical base by establishing this major cross-institutional and multi-disciplinary collaboration. Such a programme is crucial to support the health of the application oriented research which was highlighted as such a strength by the 2004 international review. Indeed, the main motivation of this proposal is to underpin the health of the UK research base in this critically important area. This far sighted initiative aims to establish theoretical advances in the field which are informed by, and which feed into, real applications.