Project Grant 2543289

CAREER: Process Systems Engineering for Resilient Food Supply Chains

The National Science Foundation's Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems awarded the University of Wisconsin–Madison a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Project Grant of $555,444 on June 1, 2026, with a completion date of May 31, 2031. Under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), this award funds the development of an integrated computational framework for modeling, optimizing, and analyzing resilience in food supply chains, with particular focus on perishable products. The project delivers mathematical modeling tools and decision-support systems that simultaneously capture spoilage dynamics, uncertainty, and decentralized stakeholder behavior across production, processing, distribution, and retail stages. Key deliverables include a graph-based recourse-task-network representation for embedding perishability constraints; robust optimization methodologies under uncertainty through contextual uncertainty sets; and multi-agent models that represent heterogeneous stakeholder interactions and support analysis of cooperation, competition, and policy interventions.

The award integrates research and educational components designed to advance both scientific understanding and workforce development. Educational deliverables include the development of new courses, professional development training for educators, and an interactive board game for student engagement with food systems concepts. The project uses the Wisconsin dairy industry as a case study application, addressing critical gaps in supply chain science and demonstrating relevance to a economically important, perishable-product industry. Through these computational frameworks and educational initiatives, the project aims to reduce food waste, strengthen economic resilience in agricultural supply chains, and improve consumer price stability while building capacity in process systems engineering.