On July 23rd, at the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of the University of Cantabria (Santander), the act of defense of the Doctoral Thesis of Manuel Luna García took place. The Thesis, entitled “Data science applications to the decision-making process in Aquaculture Business Management”, focused on the application of data analysis and processing techniques to develop new computational models that address the decision-making process in aquaculture companies. Manuel Luna has developed his research in the framework of the MedAID project, working on the objectives of WP6 on “Improving business performance and development of strategic marketing plans”, in particular the activities related to the improvement of efficiency and economic performance of aquaculture enterprises. The thesis has been directed by the professors of the University of Cantabria, Angel Cobo and Ignacio Llorente, and the evaluation panel has been chaired by Dr. Fernando González Laxe, Professor of Applied Economics at the University of La Coruña. The thesis has been carried out through the system of compendium of scientific publications, resulting in the publication of the following 3 articles in journals of international impact:
• Luna, M., Llorente, I., & Cobo, Á. (2019). Integration of environmental sustainability and product quality criteria in the decision-making process for feeding strategies in seabream aquaculture companies. Journal of cleaner production, 217, 691-701.
• Luna, M., Llorente, I., & Cobo, A. (2019). Determination of feeding strategies in aquaculture farms using a multiple-criteria approach and genetic algorithms. Annals of Operations Research, 1-26.
• Luna, M., Llorente, I., & Cobo, A. (2020). Aquaculture production optimisation in multi-cage farms subject to commercial and operational constraints. Biosystems Engineering, 196, 29-45.