Multiple criteria decision aid

meeting between large group in room with pink wall

Multiple criteria decision aid research

Explore our work in multiple criteria decision aid, 1 of our areas of expertise in Operational Research and Logistics

Multiple criteria decision aid helps people – such as business managers and public administrators – to make better-informed decisions.

It's a rich and varied field of research, which spans a host of potential applications and a diverse array of methods. Multiple criteria decision aid techniques are especially valuable for approaching complex problems with conflicting criteria and/or uncertain or missing data.

These methods can be applied in any field in which decisions are taken, and our specialist academics have contributed to projects focused on reducing the costs of wind farm operations, improving the effectiveness of maritime security, and many more.

Thanks to our research, governments, policy makers and companies can take better decisions on complex matters, and justify them every time.

Our research covers the following topics

Analytic hierarchy process (AHP)
Outranking methods
Data envelopment analysis (DEA)
Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM)
Multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT)
Multi-objective optimisation (MOO)
Rule-based approach
Group decisions
Decision modelling
Interactive methods
Decision support system (DSS)

Methods and facilities

Our work uses mainly quantitative research techniques, as our methods rely on data. The exception is when we're structuring a problem, as qualitative techniques are more appropriate for this.

Specialist facilities available for our research at Portsmouth include a decision lab with a suit of dedicated software.

Partnerships and funders

To test the validity of the new decision techniques we develop, we collaborate with a large number of local and international organisations.

We've received millions in research funding from organisations including the EU and from a range of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. Recent funding includes an award of €242,429 for the EU's Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS).

Projects and publications

Findings from our research are published in a range of journals, including European Journal of Operational Research, OMEGA, Expert Systems with Applications, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Production Economics, and Journal of the Operational Research Society.

Project highlights

The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) project
Circular models Leveraging Investments in Cultural heritage adaptive reuse (CLIC) project
Determining optimal port choices to support offshore windfarms

Using a multiple criteria decision aid approach, as part of the LEANWIND (Logistic Efficiencies And Naval architecture for Wind Installations with Novel Developments) project

Discover our areas of expertise

Multiple criteria decision aid is 1 of our 8 areas of expertise in the Operational Research and Logistics research area. Explore the others below.

Decision and data analytics

Research in the design of decision support systems, and use of data analysis, to help people make better decisions through a better understanding of their data.

Data analyst looking at data on a monitor

Exact and metaheuristic solution methods

Heuristic and metaheuristic techniques are powerful and flexible research methodologies that offer a faster way of solving complex logistical challenges.

Healthcare analytics

From nurse scheduling to infection and disease modelling, our research provides decision-makers in the healthcare sector with optimal strategies for treatment.

nurse pointing at scan on computer screen

Transportation and maritime systems

Our research focuses on developing innovative optimisation models and decision support systems, to help improve the mobility of people, goods and services.

Passenger boats and tall ships in Portsmouth harbour

Optimisation modelling

As well as improving business efficiency, we're enabling people to make optimal decisions that can lead to practices with enhanced economic, environmental or social benefits.

Female warehouse working checking tablet

Renewable energy and sustainability analytics

Modelling to answer a host of questions, from how to produce renewable energy more cheaply, to how the associated logistics can be sustainable.

Risk and security analytics

We help organisations learn from failures, so they can improve the quality and resilience of their operations, and we develop new analytic approaches to detect security threats.

Man cleaning up oil spill on a beach in Thailand

Research groups

Centre for Operational Research and Logistics

We're using our expertise in analytics, system design, simulation, programming, and forecasting to help organisations around the world make better decisions.

Logistics Operational Research and Analytics Group

We're researching how we can apply quantitative methodologies to improve decision-making across a range of diverse fields of application.

Interested in a PhD in Operational Research & Logistics?

Browse our postgraduate research degrees – including PhDs and MPhils – at our Operational Research & Logistics postgraduate research degrees page.