Shaofeng Liu

Academic profile

Professor Shaofeng Liu


The Global Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Shaofeng's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Goal 02: SDG 2 - Zero HungerGoal 03: SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-beingGoal 04: SDG 4 - Quality EducationGoal 07: SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean EnergyGoal 08: SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic GrowthGoal 09: SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and InfrastructureGoal 11: SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and CommunitiesGoal 12: SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and ProductionGoal 15: SDG 15 - Life on LandGoal 16: SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong InstitutionsGoal 17: SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

About Shaofeng

  • Deputy Director of Doctoral College
  • Professor of Operations Management and Decision Making 
  • Research Cluster Lead - Product and Service Value Chains
  • Author for book "", available on (printed and kindle versions). The .
  • Editor-in-Chief:
  • President:
  • Steering Committee: UK Digital Supply Chain Hub - Academic Network
  • Follow me on twitter @ShaofengUK, LinkedIn, ResearchGate
  • Research grants:

    • 2024-2027, UKRI project “Resilience in Agri-food Systems: Supply Chain Configuration Analytics Lab” (RASCAL)”, funded by BBSRC, £1.73M, coordinated by Cambridge University, partners include Plymouth University, QUB and NIAB.

    • 2022-2026, UKRI project "Nurturing future Black, Asian and minority ethnic female professors (Generation Delta)", funded by Research England and Office of Students, £797,264, coordinated by University of Leeds, partners including Plymouth, Goldsmiths, Reading, Sheffield and Sunderland Universities. Project website: 
    • 2022-2024, UK Royal Society funded project “Water for food sustainability: from precision measurement of soil water content to data-driven decision support”. Funded under International Exchanges 2021 Cost Share (NSFC) scheme.
    • 2021-2022, UK government funded project “”, under Community Renewal Fund, project value, £503,318, coordinated by Devon County Council, partners including Plymouth University, Duchy College and West Devon Business Information Point.
    • 2016-2022, Horizon 2020 project "", funded by European Commission under Marie Curie RISE scheme, €1.3M (WP leader).
    • 2017-2021, Horizon 2020 project ", funded by European Commission under Marie Curie ETN scheme, €3.5M (Co-ordinaor: Professor Genhua Pan from Ƶ).
    • 2018-2022, EUHorizon 2020 project “An Integrated Platform for Developing Brain CANcerDiagnostic Techniques (AiPBAND)”, funded by European Commission under Marie Curie ETN scheme, €3.7M (Co-ordinator: Dr Xingzhong Li from Ƶ). 
    • 2019-2021, UK British Council funded project "", funded by Newton Fund, £32,000 (Co-ordinator: Dr Sachin Kumar). 
    • 2017-2019, EU Erasmus Plus project “Innovating youth work to foster youth active citizenship, entrepreneurship and employability (YOU-ACE)”, €197,925 (Plymouth PI: Dr Jonathan Moizer). 
    • 2015-2018, Horizon 2020 project "Innovative Quality of Experience Management in Emerging Multimedia Services (QoE-Net)", funded by European Commission under Marie Curie ETN scheme, €3.1M for the project (€547K to Plymouth, with Dr Lingfen Sun as WP leader and Professor Emmanuel Ifeachor).
    • 2015-2017, Post-doc Knowledge Transfer Partnership project Researching, evaluating and embedding sustainable technologies into Construction industry", funded by Innovate UK/EPSRC and Wates Construction, £146,000 (with Professor Steve Goodhew as Academic Lead). Link to project release on the KTP Associate, Dr Zainab Dangana
    • 2014-2016, EU Erasmus Plus KA2 project ", funded by European Commission, €120,832. Full details on the 
    • 2013-2014, " ", funded by UK Higher Education Academy (HEA).
    • 2013, Invited Professor, fully funded by French National Research Institute IRIT at the University of Toulouse, with Professor Pascale Zarate.

Supervised Research Degrees

Have supervised more than ten PhD students to successful completion. Some current PhD projects:
  • Using social network analytics to enhance business intelligence and decision making in food supply chain chains. Guoste Pivoraite (funded DTA).
  • Adoption of blockchain technology for sustainable food security: drivers, barriers and potential solutions for agri-food supply chain in Nigeria . Ruth Goma
  • Peer learning to support the creation of closed-loop social value networks in food sharing communities. Xinyi Li (󲹳辱Dz)
  • The Impact of effective use of Big Data Analytics on drilling operation’s performance in the upstream of the Oil and Gas value chain. Mohammad Jrakhi.
  • Innovative business model addressing the full value circle for technology development in brain cancer diagnosis and healthcare.  (Marie Curie Fellow).
  • The Impact of sociocultural factors on consumers’ attitudes towards social media advertising and purchase intention within the luxury clothing industry. Lamis Aldawish. (Co-supervisor)
  • Analyzing The Dimensions of Relationship Marketing to Enhance Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) in Ghanaian Cocoa Industry, Richard Asante (Co-supervisor)
For a full list of PhD programmes provided at Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business: /about-us/university-structure/faculties/arts-humanities-business/research-degrees 

Teaching

At undergraduate, postgraduate, MBA and DBA levels: 

  • Knowledge management and decision making
  • Management Decision Making 
  • Operations Management
  • Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  • Business in Context
  • Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems 
  • Applying Theory to Practice (for DBA degree)
  • Research Methods for Business Students

Award from UK HEA:
Higher Education Academy (HEA) seminar series, workshop on "".

Contact Shaofeng

Room 306, Fitzroy Building, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
+44 1752 585721