Swedish Operations Research Association

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Swedish Operations Research Association (SOAF) is a non-profit group in Sweden that promotes operations research (OR) and its practical use in different problems. It was founded in 1959 to develop OR and apply it across various fields. SOAF is part of the European and international OR communities, belonging to EURO (Association of European Operational Research Societies) and IFORS (International Federation of Operational Research Societies).

The idea for SOAF came after the 1957 Oxford conference on OR, where Sweden participated. Sweden joined IFORS in 1960 and helped found EURO in 1975, later hosting EURO’s second conference in Stockholm in 1976.

SOAF is governed by a board of up to eight members, including a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Editor, elected each year. Membership is open to organizations and individuals. In 2018, SOAF had 22 organization members and 19 individual members. Most members work in transportation and logistics, with others in areas such as maintenance, health care, and military defense.

Together with the Danish Operations Research Society, SOAF publishes ORbit magazine twice a year. The association also runs a bi-annual national OR conference. In 2013, SOAF hosted a joint conference with the Danish and Norwegian OR Societies (SOAK and NOS6) at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, attracting about 80 participants.