Recently, the EU granted the large international project Mixed-Integer Non-Linear Optimisation Applications (MINOA), as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme. The project is a collaborative European Training Network, with 12 research partners in four countries, CWI being one of them. The project starts in January 2018 and runs for four years, with each partner receiving a PhD position (in total 3 million euro). The evaluation was very positive, with MINOA being the best ranked and only financed project in Mathematics. A notable feature is the outstanding representation of female researchers in the MINOA project.
In the MINOA proposal the research team explains the goal of this project: “Building upon the achievements of the Marie-Curie ITN MINO (2012-2016), the goal of the MINOA proposal is to train the next generation of highly qualified researchers and managers in applied mathematics, operations research and computer science that are able to face the modern necessary challenges in areas such as energy, logistics, engineering, natural sciences, and data analytics.
Twelve Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) will be trained through an innovative training programme based on individual research projects motivated by applications that, due to their high complexity, will stimulate new developments in the field. The mathematical challenges can neither be met by using a single optimization method alone, nor isolated by single academic partners. Instead, MINOA aims at building bridges between different mathematical methodologies and at creating novel and effective algorithmic enhancements.
As special challenges, the ESRs will work on dynamic aspects and optimisation in real time, optimisation under uncertainty, multilevel optimization and non-commutativity in quantum computing. They belong to a new generation of highly-skilled researchers that will strengthen Europe's human capital base in R&I in the fast growing field of mathematical optimisation. The projects will be jointly supervised between experienced practitioners from leading European industries and leading optimisation experts, covering a wide range of scientific fields, from mathematics to quantum computing and real-world applications”.
MINOA is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Innovative Training Network (MSCA-ITN-ETN). Monique Laurent, MT member at CWI and local coordinator of the MINOA project at CWI, says: “We are very happy that we can start with our new Training Network MINOA and that we can now build on the solid collaborations we had established within our previous, successful MINO consortium”.
More information
- MINOA proposal: http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/211691_en.html
