PhD LIFECHAIN: imagining alternative transport & logistics modes, modalities, and organisational forms under extreme disruptions for sustainable island ecosystems

The successful candidate will be based in our Orkney campus.

This research project will investigate the needs for sustainability transitions in existing supply chain operations and logistics systems for island systems that constitute remote economies. It aims to contribute to the next generation of financial, informational and physical connectivity solutions that are needed to instantiate bottom-up transformational changes.

Transport and connectivity are central to the sustenance and as such constitute lifelines for Island economies like the Orkney, Outer Hebrides and Shetland Islands. Lockdowns necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic have already shown the disruptive effects that such events can have on critical supplies e.g. PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment) that are essential to survival and sustenance. Transportation lockdowns, e.g. due to prolonged poor weather conditions because of climate change are not unimaginable for island economies. Furthermore, advanced information systems that moderate the links and flows between island systems have also become highly vulnerable and remain susceptible to significant disruptions. For example, recent incidents involving disruptions to global navigation systems, particularly Global Positioning System (GPS), underscore significant vulnerabilities in modern transportation networks. Passenger ships, ferries, cruise liners, and cross-island transportation (like short-distance flights) heavily depend on GPS for navigation and route optimization. A sudden loss of these systems could lead to accidents, collisions, or significant safety risks, especially in adverse weather conditions or in busy traffic environments. Prolonged supply chain disruptions would lead to a) the use of more environmentally unfriendly choices e.g. transport modes like Air shipments, and b) the loss of connectivity and sustenance for the island economies in the worst case. The purpose of this project is to identify local supply chain systems and alternative transport and logistics modes and modalities to improve planning and more sustainable futures for non-robust island supply chains. The PhD project is expected to investigate a future-oriented modality pertaining to either (or a combination of) the physical, financial or informational flows that constitute a logistics system.

The project will be done in cooperation with the Islands Centre for Net Zero (ICNZ), and its local network. Research will be carried out in the unique and growing research environment of the Systems Transition Engineering Processes (STEPs) research consortium at the Heriot-Watt University. You will be able to gain from competences and collaboration within the Global Research Institute on Net Zero and Beyond (iNetZ+)[1]; Islands Centre for Net Zero (ICNZ)[2]; Center for Sustainable Road Freight (CSRF[3]) and Clean Cooling Network (CCN[4]), all of which are relevant and supporting research environments. You will become an expert in engineering transitions in supply chain systems, and the research will help you develop expertise in the related methodologies at the Transition Lab at the Orkney Campus, but also with Transition Labs across the Scottish Highlands and Islands and in Edinburgh.

Working closely with the local port authority, transport and logistics service providers, consumers, retailers and suppliers the project will employ a structured approach that is guided by the following milestones:

• M1- Background Research, problem and stakeholder identification.
• M2 - Define and map supply chain robustness of the existing transportation and logistics networks
• M3- Identify the range of disruptive scenarios in the context of the island economy
• M4 - Envision alternative futures using the Transition Engineering approaches and InTime methodology
• M5- Conduct research including but not limited to (lab and field) experiments, to understand user choices, supply and financing options under various scenarios.
• M6- Develop and evaluate the sustainable concept and test functionality
• M7- Critical examination of the results and developing conclusions
• M8 - Publish and disseminate the findings, and explore commercial applications

The supervisory team brings the following skill sets to the project:

• Business economics
• Operations strategy
• Supply chain management
• Organisational theory
• Digitalisation
• Systems Science
• Agent-based Modelling
• Logistics
• New Institutional Economics
• International Economics
• Transition Engineering