Prof Benny Tjahjono is a co-leader of the Sustainable Production and Consumption research cluster at the Centre for Business in Society (CBiS), Coventry University. He joined CBiS after 21 years of postgraduate studies and an academic career at Cranfield University. His overarching research interests include Sustainable Operations and Supply Chain Management, with a particular emphasis on the transition to Circular Economy (CE). His combined background in engineering and management enables him to build a solid research track record demonstrated by winning several research grants from the UK Engineering & Physical Research Council (EPSRC), Economics and Social Research Council (ESRC), Academy of Medical Sciences (Acmedsci), InnovateUK, European Union, overseas funding agencies and the UK industry, worth over £7.5M in total.
His most recent projects have focused on trending topics such as bioplastic supply chains, coffee supply chain sustainability risks, reverse logistics, and science diplomacy to combat plastic pollution. He was one of the Principal Investigators and a member of a consortium consisting of seven universities in Europe recently being awarded the Horizon2020 MSCA Innovative Training Network worth ~€4M, aiming to formulate the service-oriented business for the European Circular Economy. His most recent research grants were funded by the Acmedsci’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) in Circular Food Supply Chain, and by ESRC in Social Innovation for Bioplastics.
Prof Tjahjono’s Scopus h-index is 21. He has published over 120 papers in refereed academic journals, conference proceedings, books, practitioners’ journals, and newspapers. He has successfully completed the supervision of 14 PhD students and over 100 Masters students, and currently supervise seven doctoral researchers in many areas related to Supply Chain, CE and sustainability. In recognition of his standing, Prof Tjahjono received the 2019 Research Excellent Award from the Faculty of Business and Law, Coventry University, and the 2017 Research Awards from Cranfield School of Management.
Prof Tjahjono enjoys collaborating with businesses. He has strong ties to the UK industry, having worked with Unipart, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and Malone Group. His passion for educating students is channelled through the notion of ‘Learning in Partnership with Industry’. He is frequently invited to deliver short courses to senior executives due to his extensive experience delivering executive education programmes. He recently won a contract from the Indonesian Ministry of Education to deliver leadership training and industrial internship programme to vocational university lecturers.
At CBiS, Prof Tjahjono mentors mid/early career researchers to improve their research capabilities, notably in journal paper publishing, writing teaching cases and bidding for research projects. His mentoring duties also include reviewing research proposals and writing clinics. Externally, he is a member of EPSRC, NERC, InnovateUK Peer Review College and is often invited to take part in the grant expert panel prioritisation meetings.
Internationally, he was recently awarded the World Class Professor (WCP) status by the Indonesian Government’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology. As part of the Indonesian diaspora network, he is frequently invited to deliver guest lectures and keynote speeches in numerous international conferences. In the summer 2019, he was awarded the prestigious International Fellow status by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS).
Prof Tjahjono represents Coventry University as one of the founding members of the UK-Indonesia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Sciences (UKICIS) consisting of seven Indonesian universities and three UK universities. The consortium aims to harness the research capabilities and knowledge transfer activities between the two countries. UKICIS has recently been mandated to manage a funding competition worth ~£2.4M from the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP). He is actively involved in nurturing Indonesian postgraduate students, young researchers and academic colleagues in the UK and Indonesia. He collaborates with over 30 university partners in Indonesia.
