What's new at the Institute?

For the most up to date news as well as regular updates and shoutouts, visit our linkedin and twitter accounts.

Africa Logistics Conference 2024

Our researchers joined experts in Dakar, Senegal, from February 14th to 15th, 2024 for a few days focusing on localistation in the humanitarian sector and other supply chain management topics. For more information see their website here.


Production and Operations Management Conference 2024 (to come)

POMS 2024 will be kicking off in minneapolis April 25th to 29th, 2024 with the goal of "building a sustainable, responsible, and resilient global future". For more information, see their website here.


Humanitarian Networks & Partnerships Week 2024 (to come)

HUMLOG will be hosting 14 sessions this year at HNPW 2024 in Geneva and online, ranging from project consortium meetings, to humanitarian logistics in sieges, to sustainable supply chains, to localisation in conflict. For more inforamtion about HUMLOG's engagement at the in-person event from April 29th to May 10th, 2024, register on the HNPW website hosted by UNOCHA here.


Nordic Logistics Research Network 2024 (to come)

The 36th annual NOFOMA conference focuses on the theme of "Logistics and Supply Chain management in a Risky and Uncertain World" in Stockholm, Sweden from June 12th to June 14th, 2024. For more information visit the conference website here. 


European Operations Management Association 2024 (to come)

EUROMA 2024, from June 29th to July 3rd, 2024 is aiming to "transform people and processes for a better world". For more information, see their website here.


Others to be announced...

15 Years HUMLOG Anniversary

The HUMLOG Institute celebrated it's 15 year anniversary on April 4th, 2023, with a fascinating day of insights into the work of the HUMLOG Institute, and keynote speakers from across the impacted industries. Information about the event can be found here.


Humanitarian Networks & Partnerships Week 2023

HUMLOG hosted 7 sessions this year at HNPW 2023 in Geneva, ranging from local procurement, to sustainable energy transition in humanitarian cold chains, to waste management in humantiarian context. For more inforamtion about HUMLOG's engagement at the in-person event from April 24th to April 28th, 2023, find our session list here or visit the HNPW website hosted by UNOCHA here.


Nordic Logistics Research Network

Co-hosted with Aalto University, NOFOMA 2023 from June 14th to June 16th, 2023 brought together researchers in the beautiful summer Helsinki air. With presentations about PhD supervision, research relevance to logistics industry, and a variety of parallel sessions, NOFOMA gave researchers an opportunity to share and learn in a nordic-focused environment. For more about the conference, visit it's website, here. 

 


Production and Operations Management Conference 2023

With panel representation as well as various conference sessions, HUMLOG focused on a variety of topics at POMS 2023 in Orlando, Florida. Hosted from May 21st to May 25th 2023, POMS varied greatly in conference topics from how to teach humanitarian oprtations to environmental sustainability in waste management, and more. For more information about our sessionl list, follow the link here, or visit the POMS website here. 


International Conference on Logistics and Transportation 2023

Hosted in Helsinki, ICLT 2023 brought together global researchers from Finland to Thailand and everywhere in between from September 27th to 28th 2023. With keynote representation from Finnish experts and global specialists, ICLT focused heavily on "Circular Supply Chains for Resilience" this year. For more information about our session list, follow the link here, or visit the ICLT website here


Other Conferences of Note

Africa Logistics Conference, February 2023

Krisis Conference, October 2023

AidEx, October 2023

​Humanitarian Networks & Partnerships Week 2022

The Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks is a three week long conference organised by OCHA, will be held in hybrid format from 2.-20.5.2022 in Geneva. The HNPW is the largest event of its kind, providing a collaborative space for practitioners and experts from a large variety of humanitarian stakeholders. Read more about the conference here.


EURO-HOpe mini-conference 2021

The European Working Group on Humanitarian Operations (EURO HOpe) and the HUMLOG Institute at Hanken School of Economics are organizing the fifth EURO HOpe mini conference in Helsinki, Finland on the 24.-25. November 2021. This year the event will be in hybrid format. Read more about the conference here.


The Universal Logistics Standards Handbook is now available online

The HUMLOG Institute has been involved in the creation of the Universal Logistics Standards (ULS) handbook and also in earlier research regarding the project. The handbook was prepared by the INSPIRE Consortium as one of several outputs from the project “Development of Best Practice and Universal Standards for Humanitarian Supply Chain and Logistics”. This activity is funded and supported by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations

You can find the handbook here and watch the informal video about ULS here.


Humanitarian Networks & Partnerships Week 2021

The HNPW, organized by OCHA, is the largest events of its kind, providing a collaborative space for practitioners and experts from a large variety of humanitarian stakeholders including UN agencies, Member States, NGOs, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, academia, the military & private sector initiatives, to collaborate in identifying solutions to common challenges in crisis preparedness and response.

This year the Institute will participate with three interesting sessions:

Continuity of activities during pandemics: Diego Vega and Félicia Saïah
The HERoS Project - Health Emergency Response in Interconnected Systems: Gyöngyi Kovács
A conglomerate of servicescapes: A new conceptualization of NEXUS environment, Diego Vega
And the HUMLOG Institute will be present at the online Marketplace.


Responsible Organising Conference #4 April 2021

This year's theme is “Re-imagine!/Re-organise!/Re-build!”.  HUMLOG Institute is participating to the conference with a panel session titled "Response to COVID-19 - learning from humanitarian operations". 

Newest blog post: Your face mask impacts the global supply chains

"The Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) pandemic has created a worldwide health crisis with an impact not only on peoples’ lives but also on the global medical supply chain network." You can read the newest blog post by Dr. Ioanna Falagara Sigala, Project Researcher at HUMLOG Institute here.


Series of blog posts presenting the solutions from The HUMLOG Challenge: Team Los Andes

The fifth and last blog post in the blog series is out! The blog post is written by the team representing Universidad de los Andes. Team Los Andes was the winning team of the entire competition with their Water Supply Chain Solution in La Guajira, Colombia.

Read their blog post here!


The HUMLOG Institute's Board Award winner's of 2021

The HUMLOG Institute rewards each year one Master’s student and every second year one Doctoral student who have been writing the best theses in Humanitarian Logistics. The topic of the thesis has to relate to humanitarian logistics and supply chain management.

Master's theses winner

Hella Abidi (supervisors Wout Dullaert, Sander de Leeuw & Matthias Klumpp)
Performance Management in Supply Chain-Application to humanitarian and commercial supply chains

Honorary mention

Mojtaba Salem (supervisor Maria Besiou)
Leadership in Humanitarian Operations

Doctoral theses winner

Charlotte Girardin (supervisor Stephan M. Wagner)
Evaluating the Promotion of Innovation in NGOs – Survey and Interview Based Study beneficiary perspective

Honorary mention

Clarisse Debalme (supervisor Tariq Masood)
Humanitarian Operations: Using Big Data and Machine Learning for Managing Pandemics


Blog posts from the HUMLOG Challenge teams

Team WU

The fourth input in our blog series is out! This week, Team WU from Vienna University of Economics and Business presents their Sars Cov2 Testing Solution in Vienna, Austria. Read it here!
Team Houston

The third input in our blog series is out! This week, Team Houston from University of Houston, Texas presents their solution on PPE Shortage Solution in Harris County. Read it here!
Team QUT

The second input in our blog series is out! This week, Team QUT from Queensland University of Technology presents their solution on Electronic Waste Solution in Colombia. Read it here!
Team Goa

Read the first blog post here, written by a team representing The Goa Institute of Management in India.
New Blog Posts

When Staying at Home is No Longer an Option

Read our newest blog post here, written by Russell Harpring, PhD Candidate at the HUMLOG Institute.
Temperature Control Matters!

Read here about how temperature control matters in vaccine supply chains by the team of the HUMLOG Institute: Ionna Falagara Sigala, Gyöngyi Kovács, Amin Maghsoudi, Wojciech Piotrowicz, Isabell Storsjö and Diego Vega. 


HUMLOG Challenge Winner 2021!

A group of students, who presented a solution to how the indigenous community Wayuu in South America could secure access to safe water for hand washing and hygiene, have won the science competition organised by the HUMLOG Institute at Hanken School of Economics.

During the month of October in 2021, over 400 students from 16 countries and six continents, worked to identify and frame problems found in supply chains within their local communities. The competition entries held a high standard and showed exceptional innovation.

The Los Andes team, from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, secured the victory with the topic Fog catcher systems in the desert of La Guajira: Analysis of the water supply chain disruption caused by COVID-19. The team investigated how to provide clean water to the indigenous community Wayuu, who live on the Guajira peninsula in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.

The panel of esteemed judges was led by Hanken School of Economic’s professor Gyöngyi Kovács. Her thoughts on the winner:
"The problem is relevant both overall to the COVID-19 pandemic, and also addresses the context of the indigenous community of the Wayuu. The team has managed to delineate the problem from the user and health authorities’ perspective and ascertain that the solution is technically feasible, and suppliers and materials would exist in the region. The recommended solution overcomes the problem of shipping water, as well as access to safe water."

In second place was Team WU from Wirtschaftsuniversität in Vienna with the topic Mobile COVID-19 testing in Vienna during flu season. Third place was secured by Team Houston from the University of Houston, Texas, USA with the topic Sourcing PPE during COVID-19 in Harris County, Texas.

The winning team earned both a mentoring session and the 5,000 USD scholarship award that will contribute to their ongoing education.

The HUMLOG Challenge competition was arranged together with the Global Business School Network.


HERoS Webinar October 2020

The HERoS project – which aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak – completed its Rapid Response. This is a big milestone in the project and during the webinar these rapid response phase results are presented.

The webinar will present results from the following deliverables:

D1.1 Recommendations for governance and policies in the COVID-19 response
D2.1 Local behavioural model and recommendations for local COVID-19 response
D2.2 Public health system analysis and recommendations
D3.1 Gap analysis and recommendations for securing medical supplies for the COVID-19 response
D4.1 Assessment of the online spread of coronavirus misinformation 
The HERoS project is an EU H2020 funded project, led by the HUMLOG Institute, Hanken School of Economics. The overall objective of HERoS is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the response to the Covid-19 outbreak. HERoS creates and provides policies and guidelines for improved crisis governance, focusing on responders to public health emergencies, and their needs to make informed decisions. HERoS further improves the predictions of the spread by understanding and modelling the impact of local behaviour on the spread of the disease. Furthermore, HERoS improves the management of medical supply chains for preparedness and response, as well as evaluates the impact of cascading effects across global supply chains.

The HERoS consortium researchers from humanitarian logistics and supply chain management (Hanken), epidemiological modelling and policy design (TUDelft), crisis governance (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); machine learning and information sciences (Open University), public health services (Nordic Healthcare Group) to space research and geoinformation (Centrum Badań Kosmicznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk), to UAV development (Squadron), health emergency responders (Polskie Centrum Pomocy Międzynarodowej, Croce Rossa Italiana, Project HOPE) and project management (ARTTIC).

More information on the HERoS project webpage


HUMLOG MOOC ‘Introduction to Humanitarian Logistics’ was a success!

1364 people from 120 countries joined our Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).
61% of the participants told that the course was better than they expected and 37% said that it met their expectations. We would like to thank everyone who participated and inform that this course will be offered in the future as well! More details on that will follow later our

Rise in e-commerce during corona crisis has revealed the need for sustainable choices for last mile deliveries

Due to a rise in e-commerce and urbanization there is a rapid increase in last mile deliveries in the Nordic countries and internationally. This pace may increase due to the Corona crisis where many choose to shop on-line in order to avoid crowds.

In a few years, last mile deliveries may impose a considerable problem for cities where activities are already competing for space. The last mile is often the most inefficient, costly, and emission intensive part of the transport chain. The negative effects of transport (emissions, congestion and accidents) become critical in cities where people live and work.

Read more about the project here.


Academy of Finland funds the Cash and/or Carry: The challenges and modalities of delivery in Covid-19 crisis project

The aim of the research project is to analyse the aid delivery mechanisms in complex emergencies, especially in responding to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has caused disruptions throughout the supply chain, resulting in short-term solutions, use of extra resources, and redesign of processes to implement social distancing measures. The project will address changes implemented in the supply chain, especially in-store and in the last mile delivery.

– The project will examine solutions developed in the immediate response phase, especially additional resources used, such as volunteers or military, review technology-based solutions that are used, and changes in processes, with a focus on best practices, says project leader Wojciech Piotrowicz, Director of the HUMLOG Institute and Associate Professor in Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility.

Read more about the project here.


The HUMLOG Institute's Board Award winner's of 2020

The HUMLOG Institute rewards each year one Master’s and every second year one Doctoral student who have been writing the best theses in Humanitarian Logistics. The topic of the thesis has to relate to humanitarian logistics and supply chain management.

Master's theses winner:

Krichelle Medel (supervisor Tariq Masood)
Building resilience in disaster management supply networks through cross-sector collaboration.

Honorary mention

Brenda Farias (supervisors Adriana Leiras & Tharcisio Cotta Fontainha)
Framework for performance evaluation in humanitarian operations from the beneficiary perspective

Sonja Saari (supervisor Arni Halldorsson)
Renewable energy sources in emergency humanitarian medical cold chain for sustainability enhancing.


An Equitable, Inclusive and Environmentally Sound Circular Economy, Post-COVID

We invite you to join an open forum on how to plan for a Circular Economy transition that is equitable, inclusive and more environmentally sound, especially with respect to climate change in a post Covid-19 World.

As the COVID-19 pandemic touches every aspect of modern society, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the slowdowns and shutdowns may inadvertently enable us to shape a new conception of prosperity and good livelihood. Points of departure for this conversation include:

Planetary Thinking: Climate Action and the Circular Economy
Technology for/against the Circular Economy
Whose Circular Economy? Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice
On behalf of Future Earth, The Greening of Industry Network, International Forum on Sustainable Value Chains, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the HUMLOG Institute


The HUMLOG Institute is the co-ordinator of the Horizon 2020 research project HERoS

The HUMLOG Institute will contribute to the Health Emergency Response in Interconnected Systems in connection to the present OVID-19 outbreak project with its research and training expertise in the areas of humanitarian logistics and supply chain management, including medical logistics, and the evaluation of supply chain disruptions.

”We at the HUMLOG Institute are very excited about this project and are looking forward to conducting research with immediate value to the incredible health care responders and humanitarian organisations working with this right now. As always, research with a measurable benefit to people requiring assistance is at the core of any project we do”, says Gyöngyi Kovács, professor and principal investigator for the research project.

Read more about the project here.


The HUMLOG Institutes MOOC 'Introduction to Humanitarian Logistics' started 6th of April 2020!

It is a 2-week course where participants can understand the fundamentals of humanitarian logistics and discover supply chain management in a humanitarian context. The course has been developed by HUMLOG Institute at Hanken. The lead educators are Gyöngyi Kovács, Diego Vega Bernal and Graham Heaslip.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) will be going live this spring on the social learning platform Future Learn, with millions of users around the world. The courses are open for anyone and everyone around the world.

Join course for free


Signed partnership agreement with World Humanitarian Forum

The HUMLOG Institute is excited to work with the Forum, which aim is to provide an international platform for the world’s humanitarian community, leaders, NGOs and private sector. The event in London, May 2021 (rescheduled due to COVID-19), has a wide portfolio of events, nine thematic theatres, three dedicated exhibitions, two conferences, roundtables, workshops and high-level forums.

There will be three side events at the Forum: Aid&Trade brings together major stakeholders working across the Global Aid and the International Development Industry. The International Disaster Management Exhibition (IDME) is an international platform for the world’s disaster management and response community to exchange science, policy, and best practice. Emergency Show London features advancements in products and services for procurement across the Emergency and Blue Light sectors.

The HUMLOG Institute is looking forward to disseminate research and learn about current issues in the field and to assure that our research has practical relevance. As we are working with humanitarian organisations, the World Humanitarian Forum will help us establish new relationships as well as strengthen current ones.