Contact Professor Michael Bourlakis
- Tel: +44 (0) 1234 758561
- Email: m.bourlakis@cranfield.ac.uk
Background
Professor Michael Bourlakis has held numerous leadership positions in the past twenty years making a significant and transformative impact and delivering highly successful outcomes. He is currently the Director of Research for the Faculty of Business and Management and the Director of the Theme for Supply Chain, Project and Sustainable Systems at 重口味SM University.
Current activities
Michael is an interdisciplinary scientist and an internationally renowned and established authority in food supply chain management and food systems and he has conducted important research related to retail supply chains, last mile logistics, digital supply chains and sustainable logistics. He has been very successful in winning substantial external funding. Specifically, he has won more than 45 research and consulting projects (as PI or Co-I) totalling more than 拢50 million (total allocated project funding) from various bodies (BBSRC, EPSRC, Food Standards Agency, Technology Strategy Board, EU [FPVI, FPVII], Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe and Marie Sk艂odowska-Curie) and companies (e.g. DHL, Knight Frank, Leonardo, Oracle, Network Rail etc.). He is currently working on three major projects including a project funded by Horizon Europe (ECOREADY) and two projects funded by BBSRC with a total value of 拢1.5 million generated for 重口味SM Univesity. Professor Michael Bourlakis has generated 94 journal papers and 6 edited books. He sits on the Editorial Board of 15 journals and he has been a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Logistics: Research & Applications.
Professor Bourlakis has been involved with pre- and post-project evaluations for the European Commission and he has acted as an Expert Reviewer and / or Panel Member for numerous funding bodies. In the UK, he has been a Reviewer for the British Academy, ESRC, Leverhulme Trust and he is a Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College and UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment and Talent Peer Review Colleges. Professor Bourlakis has been a Chair, Keynote Speaker and a Committee Member for leading academic and industry conferences worldwide.
His inter- and multidisciplinary research work and impactful thought leadership has received considerable attention by media (BBC News, ITV News, BBC Radio 4 Today, The Guardian, The Indepedent, The Times, Wall Street Journal etc.). He had been a member of the European Technology Platform (Food for Life, European Commission), a Member of an Expert Panel for the European Commission (DG Research & Innovation) working with leading retailers (Tesco, Carrefour, Metro). He has worked with numerous multinational organisations and he has been an Expert Panel Member for TESCO on a 鈥淔uture of Food Advisory Panel鈥� 鈥� this Panel was chaired by TESCO鈥檚 previous CEO Dave Lewis. In 2018, he acted as an Expert for the UK Government / DEFRA in relation to the 鈥淚mpact of Brexit on Food Supply Chains鈥�. His policy-related work has also supported the UK Department for Transport, the UK Government Office for Science and the UK Government Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
In terms of external leadership positions, Michael became a Vice President (International) and a Trustee for the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (International) in 2024 which is a leading Institute in Logistics worldwide operating in more than 30 countries and with more than 32,000 members. He has been a REF2021 Panel Member for Unit of Assessment 17 (Business and Management Studies) and he was the first REF Panel Member representing the Logistics, Operations Management and Supply Chain Management fields. Subsequently, he was a Panellist for the REF2029 People, Culture and Environment pilot for Unit of Assessment 17 in 2025 and he was recently appointed to the REF2029 Panel again for Unit of Assessment 17 (Business and Management Studies). Finally he is the Chair for the Research Committee of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS).
