In context of the virtual 51st Annual Conference of the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) our BISKIT consortium partners from the University of Münster, Bernd Hellingrath and Adam Widera, hosted a mini-session on simulation-related research in context of humanitarian logistics. On November 22nd 2020, BISKIT took the opportunity to give a talk on the targeted simulation-optimization approach within the project. Melanie Reuter-Oppermann’s talk “Simulation-optimization approaches for blood logistics in South Africa” covered the limitations of existing optimization approaches in blood supply chains and presented the BISKIT simulation-optimization framework that will be used at different planning levels to improve blood logistics in South Africa.