The Management Science group at Kent Business School is one of Europe’s leading centres in the areas of location analysis and transportation and logistics. Particular interests of the staff include discrete and continuous location, routing problems, including green or reverse logistics, and the design of heuristic and exact solution methods. Overview The group is also known in the areas of soft OR, research metrics, big data, data envelopment analysis, and environmental management. We welcome student research projects on a variety of topics including: Location analysis Routing problems Critical Infrastructure Protection Environmental management Operations management Multivariate analysis Big data Insurance/warranty data analysis and management Research metrics Soft OR Data envelopment analysis and performance measurement Students working on relevant research topics in logistics or performance measurement are invited to join the Centre for Logistics and Heuristic Optimisation or the Anglo-Chinese Business and Management Centre, respectively. The group is a member of NATCOR and students can attend a wide range of courses and workshops in the field of operational research and management science. Students interested in more mathematical topics are advised to follow the ‘Operational Research’ programme while those interested in more applied topics or operations management are advised to choose ‘Management Science’. Location You will be based either at the Canterbury or Medway campus, depending on where your first supervisor is based, for the duration of your PhD. Should you be based at Medway you will be expected to travel to Canterbury for compulsory modules and events run by the Graduate School. There is a regular University shuttle bus, which runs between Canterbury and Medway during term-time, this service is free for students. About Kent Business School Kent Business School has over 25 years’ experience delivering business education. Our portfolio of postgraduate programmes demonstrates the breadth and depth of our expertise. Academic research and links with global business inform our teaching, ensuring a curriculum that is relevant and current. We are ranked as a top 30 UK business school for the standard of our teaching and student satisfaction. We also hold a number of accreditations by professional bodies. Studying at Kent Business School (KBS) gives you the opportunity to increase your employability with real-life case studies, a student council and a business society. We have strong links to local and national organisations providing opportunities for projects, internships and graduate placements. The School attracts many high-profile speakers from industry and last year included visits and lectures from staff of the Bank of England, BAE Systems, Barclays, Lloyds Insurance, Cummins, Delphi and Kent County Council. The School currently has 60 PhD students, who form a dynamic and close-knit research community. National ratings In the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014, we were placed 25th (out of 101 institutions) in the UK for research intensity in business and management studies and 98% of our research was judged to be of international quality. The School’s environment was judged to be conducive to supporting the development of research of international excellence. The School was also ranked 24th for its breadth and depth of research across the whole community of research active staff by the Association of Business Schools.