Research team from the Institute of Chemical Engineering at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the University "Prof. Dr. Assen Zlatarov "- Bourgas unite their efforts and expertise to solve the following fundamental problems:

• Design and management of strategic supply chains for production and distribution of biodiesel using first and second generations bio-resources, providing sustainability in terms of environmental, economic and social criteria taking into account the needs of the regions for transport fuels in the context of uncertain data.
• Design and management of tactical supply chain for dairy products production, providing sustainability in terms of environmental, economic and social criteria in the context of certain and uncertain data.

    To achieve these goal, the following methods will be used:

• Data analysis to obtain reliable information about the subject of investigation;
• Mathematical modeling to create relevant, adequate, mathematical models for design and management of strategic and tactical supply chains;
• Optimization (non-linear, stochastic and multi-objective) to obtain quantitative assessments of the sustainability, effectiveness, environmental, economic and social impact of strategic and tactical supply chains;
• Creating software codes.

The most important results expected to be achieved are the development of two methodologies for the design and management of supply chains at two levels of decision-making: strategic and tactical, ensuring sustainability in terms of environmental, economic and social criteria in the context of certain and uncertain data. The effectiveness of the created methodologies will be proved on real case studies from the Bulgarian industry - production of biodiesel using first and second generations bio-resources and production of dairy products.