[APDIO] ICORD 2014 Call for Participants

["A. Ismael F. Vaz" <aivaz@dps.uminho.pt>]

International Conference on OR for Development, ICORD 2014

"The Art of Modeling, the Challenges of Implementation"

July 10-11, 2014 @ University of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain (Immediately
preceding  IFORS 2014 July 13-18)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VENUE

Background
The International Conference on OR for Development (ICORD) used to be
sponsored by IFORS (http://ifors.org/web/icord-history) every 3 years but
in recent years workshops have also been held in the intervening years:
the last two were held in Tunisia and Rome in collaboration with the Euro
Working Group on OR for Development.  This conference will be similarly
organized. It aims to improve the links among researchers with the view to
improving each other's effectiveness at bringing about meaningful changes
towards development.

Call for Participants
The International Conference on OR for Development will again be hosted by
IFORS in co-operation with the EWG ORD in the days preceding the IFORS
Conference in Barcelona. ICORD 2014 will be held at the University of
Lleida, Catalonia, accessible by a 1-hour train ride from Barcelona or
2-hours from Madrid.

Operations Researchers who have done work in the area of OR for
Development are invited to participate. To qualify, participants are
required to submit a full paper on their work which has used Operations
Research to help decision-making processes  in the area of education,
health, and other basic services, water, technology, resource use
(physical or financial), infrastructure, agricultural/industrialization, 
or environmental sustainability. The work should have helped optimize
development in view of constraints and limited resources. A stress on
developmental issues will be an important factor; papers of a purely
technical nature, or those that have no relevance in the developmental
context, will not be considered.

Extended abstracts (no less than 1,500 words) will be accepted, though
full papers (needed for a meaningful review) are preferred.

Conference format
The conference will be limited to a small number of participants who will
each present their paper to others in their group and will benefit from a
critique of their work by the other participants and invited experts.

All participants will be given all the papers of accepted participants in
advance, which will give them time to study the other papers in detail.
Ample time will be given for a discussion of each of the papers presented.
There will also be plenary session/s for invited speakers and participants
will be given the opportunity to attend a workshop on techniques
especially relevant to developing countries.

Researchers who have participated in previous ICORDs and who have brought
their work forward are encouraged to attend to report on developments on
their previously presented work.

Papers submitted for IFORS Prize for Development are also welcome. 
Competition finalists will find it beneficial to present their work in
this forum and gather feedback.

Important Dates
Paper Submission  : February 15, 2014
Papers must be addressed to: Honora Smith, (Honora.Smith@soton.ac.uk)
Notification of Acceptance : February 28, 2014

Subsidized Conference Registration Fee
US $200, inclusive of materials, snacks & lunch

Accommodation
Student accommodation starts @ €30/day, available also for non-students
participants; hotels from  €50-100/day.

Support for Participants
A limited number of slots for accommodation and registration support will
be available, and will depend on the quality of material submitted.
Updates will follow in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, for any inquiries, please contact:

Conference Chairs
Youssef Masmoudi, youssef.masmoudi@gmail.com
Lluís Miquel Pla Aragonés, lmpla@matematica.udl.cat

Program Committee
Elise del Rosario, elise@jgdelrosario.com
Honora Smith, honora.smith@soton.ac.uk
Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber, gweber@metu.edu.tr