About the conference


The 37th annual conference of the Belgian Operational Research Society (ORBEL 37) will take place on May 25-26, 2023 at HEC Liège. The conference will be fully in-person, all speakers must be present in Liège.

ORBEL 37 is the 37nd conference of ORBEL, the Belgian Operational Research (OR) Society, Member of EURO, the association of European OR Societies, and Belgian representative of IFORS (International Federation of OR Societies).

The conference is intended as a meeting place for researchers, users and potential users of Operational Research, Statistics, Computer Science and related fields. It will provide managers, practitioners, and researchers with a unique opportunity to exchange information on quantitative techniques for decision making.

This year's meeting (ORBEL37) will take place in the city of Liège at HEC Liège-Management School of ULiège, and will be organised by the HEC Liège Centre for Quantitative Methods and Operations Management (QuantOM).

What is operational research?


Though there is no "official definition" of Operational Research ("Operations Research" in the US), it can be described as a scientific approach to the solution of problems in the management of complex systems. In a rapidly changing environment an understanding is sought which will facilitate the choice and the implementation of more effective solutions which, typically, may involve complex interactions among people, materials and money.

OperationalResearch has been used intensively in business, industry and government. Many new analytical methods have evolved, such as: mathematical programming, simulation, game theory, queuing theory, network analysis, decision analysis, multicriteria analysis, etc., which have powerful application to practical problems with the appropriate logical structure.

Operational Research in practice is a team effort, requiring close cooperation among the decision-makers, the skilled OR analyst and the people who will be affected by the management action.

The objective of Operational Researchers is to work with clients to find practical and pragmatic solutions to operational or strategic problems, often working within tight timing constraints. Once a good or better way of proceeding has been identified, Operational Researchers can also be central to the management of implementing the proposed changes.

Organisations may seek a very wide range of operational improvements - for example, greater efficiency, better customer service, higher quality or lower cost. Whatever the business engineering aim, OR can offer the flexibility and adaptability to provide objective help. Most of the problems OR tackles are messy and complex, often entailing considerable uncertainty. OR can use advanced quantitative methods, modelling, problem structuring, simulation and other analytical techniques to examine assumptions, facilitate an in -depth understanding and decide on practical action.

(source: EURO website)

Conference Venue


The conference will take place in the main building of HEC Liège, in the heart of the City of Liège, Belgium’s third largest city and the largest agglomeration of the French-speaking Walloon region. Liège is home to the third inland port of Europe and the eighth freight airport in Europe. Recognized for its quality of life and its rich historical patrimonium, Liège is ideally situated within the Meuse-Rhin Euregio, 40 kilometers from Maastricht (the Netherlands) and 60 kilometers from Aachen (Germany). It is less than 1.5 hours away from Köln, 2.5 hours from Paris, and 4 hours from London by high-speed train (TGV) starting from the new magnificent train station designed by the renowned architect Santiago Calatrava.