Engineering Humanitarian Aid - a Cooperation with ICRC

Together with the ICRC, the HumOSCM Lab of the Chair of Logistics Management at ETH has launched an action research project to improve the supply of medical materials in conflict areas. The collaborative team is working to prevent avoidable delays of medical Supply, minimize waste and improve workflows. The research focuses upon historical order data as well as of the configuration of a representative supply chain flowing through Geneva-Nairobi-Goma. It has identified ways to improve the distribution of medical supply and make better use of constrained resources like funding, facilities, and staff. Initial results of the study have been implemented by reconfiguring material flows through Geneva to relieve bottlenecks and cost pressures.

The logistics project is part of the initiative "Engineering Humanitarian Aid" launched by the ETH Zurich, EPFL and the ICRC in 2020. The three Swiss Institutions are working together to draw upon the combined know-how of its two technical universities to help the ICRC serve the needy in emergency situations and humanitarian crises.