LION20 Scope
The 20th Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference
June 15–19, 2026, Milan, Italy
EURO Bulletin Board - Conferences
LION20 - The 20th Learning and Intelligent Optimization Conference. June 15–19, 2026, Milan, Italy. Full (long and short) paper: Feb 1, 2026 .
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Call for Papers
This meeting, which continues the successful series of LION events started 18 years ago, is exploring the intersections and uncharted territories between machine learning, artificial intelligence, mathematical programming and algorithms for hard optimization problems.The main purpose of the venue is to bring together experts from these areas to discuss new ideas and methods, challenges and opportunities in various application areas, general trends and specific developments.
The large variety of heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms for hard optimization problems raises numerous interesting and challenging issues. Practitioners are confronted with the burden of selecting the most appropriate method, in many cases through an expensive algorithm configuration and parameter tuning process, and subject to a steep learning curve. Scientists seek theoretical insights and demand a sound experimental methodology for evaluating algorithms and assessing strengths and weaknesses. A necessary prerequisite for this effort is a clear separation between the algorithm and the experimenter, who, in too many cases, is "in the loop" as a crucial intelligent learning component. Both issues are related to designing and engineering ways of "learning" about the performance of different techniques, and ways of using past experience about the algorithm behavior to improve performance in the future. Intelligent learning schemes for mining the knowledge obtained from different runs or during a single run can improve the algorithm development and design process and simplify the applications of high-performance optimization methods. Combinations of algorithms can further improve the robustness and performance of the individual components provided that sufficient knowledge of the relationship between problem instance characteristics and algorithm performance is obtained.
Topics of Interest. Topics related to Operations research, learning and intelligent optimization, including but not limited to:
- Machine learning
- Operations research
- OR for ML and AI
- ML and AI for OR
- Metaheuristics
- Deep learning
- Evolutionary algorithms
- Reinforcement learning
- Optimization techniques
- Data mining and analytics
- Data science and big data
- Parallel methods for Optimization, OR, ML and AI
- Large-scale problems
- Robust optimization and its applications
- Tabu search (prohibition-based heuristics)
- Applications of these topics in robotics, economics, energy, environmental sciences, healthcare, management, and other real-world areas.
- We encourage submissions of surveys and future-oriented papers.
Important dates
All deadlines are Anywhere on Earth (AoE = UTC-12h).
- Submission opens: October 1, 2025.
- Full (long and short) paper: Feb 1, 2026 .
- Author notification: April 1, 2026.
- Abstract submission (for presentation only): March 1 - April 8, 2026
- Abstract notification: April 15, 2026
- Registration opens: March 31, 2026.
- Early registration deadline: April 23, 2026.
- Late registration deadline: May 20, 2026.
- Camera-ready papers: May 15, 2026
- Conference at Milan, Italy, June 15–19, 2026.
Invited talks
Paper submission & Proceedings
Types of Submissions
When submitting a paper to LION 20, authors are required to select one of the following three types of papers:
- Long paper: original novel and unpublished work (12- 15 pages in LNCS format);
- Short paper: an extended abstract of novel work (6-11 pages in LNCS format);
- Abstract: for oral presentation only (maximum 1000 words in LNCS format).
You can submit original and unpublished work either as a long paper (12-15 pages, including references) or short paper (6-11 pages, including references). You can choose to add an appendix.
Paper Format
Please prepare your paper in English using the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) template. Papers must be submitted in PDF.
Submission System
All papers must be submitted using OpenReview.
All abstracts (for presentation only) must be submitted using OpenReview.
Review Process
Please note that the review process for LION 20 is single blind.
Proceedings
Papers accepted into the LION20 proceedings will be published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS).
Special Issue
Accepted papers at LION20 will be invited to submit extended versions to a special issue. All manuscripts are subject to peer review. The details of the SI and submissions will be available during LION20.
Special sessions
In addition to submissions about general LION themes, we also welcome submissions related to one of our special sessions. The special sessions will be part of the regular conference and are subject to the same peer-review as all other submissions.
Program
Best Paper Awards
The Best Paper Awards at LION20 will recognize outstanding contributions based on originality, technical quality, and impact. Selected papers will be honored during the conference, with each recipient receiving a certificate and a monetary prize.Organization
General Chairs
Francesco Archetti (Consorzio Milano Ricerche, Italy) 
Antonio Candelieri, University of Milano-Bicocca, ItalyTechnical Program Committee Chair
Maximilian Schiffer (Professor for Business Analytics & Intelligent Systems, Technical University of Munich, Germany).Steering Committee
Roberto Battiti (University of Trento, Italy - Head of the Steering Committee) Francesco Archetti (Consorzio Milano Ricerche, Italy) 
Christian Blum (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain) 
Mauro Brunato (University of Trento, Italy) 
Carlos A. Coello-Coello (CINVESTAV-IPN, Mexico) 
Clarisse Dhaenens (University of Lille, France) 
Paola Festa (University of Napoli, Italy) 
Martin Charles Golumbic (University of Haifa, Israel) 
Youssef Hamadi (Tempero Tech, France) 
Milan Hladik, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Laetitia Jourdan (University of Lille, France) 
Nikolaos Matsatsinis (Technical University of Crete, Greece) 
Hossein Moosaei, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, Czech Republic
Panos Pardalos (University of Florida, USA) 
Mauricio Resende (University of Washington, USA) 
Meinolf Sellmann (InsideOpt, USA) 
Yaroslav Sergeyev (University of Calabria, Italy) 
Dimitris Simos (SBA Research, Austria) 
Thomas Stuetzle (University of Bruxelles, Belgium) 
Kevin Tierney (Bielefeld University, Germany) 
Yingqian Zhang, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.Technical Program Committee: (work in progress)
- Zaharah A. Bukhsh (Eindhoven University of Technology)
- Francesco Archetti (University of Milano Bicocca)
- Laurens Bliek (Eindhoven University of Technology)
- Maurizio Bruglieri (Politecnico di Milano)
- Mauro Brunato (University of Trento)
- Sonia Cafieri (Université de Toulouse)
- Quentin Cappart (Polytechnique Montreal)
- Renato De Leone (University of Camerino)
- Luca Di Gaspero (University of Udine)
- Yingjie Fan (Leiden University)
- Paola Festa (University of Naples Federico II)
- Laura Genga (Eindhoven University of Technology)
- Jerome Geyer-Klingeberg (Universität Augsburg)
- Pontus Giselsson (Lund University)
- Isel Grau (Eindhoven University of Technology)
- Vladimir Grishagin (Nizhny Novgorod State University)
- Francesca Guerriero (University of Calabria)
- David Hartman (Charles University)
- Milan Hladík (Charles University, Prague)
- Laetitia Jourdan (University of Lille)
- Serdar Kadıoğlu (Brown University)
- Marie-Eleonore Kessaci (University of Lille)
- Michael Khachay (Russian Academy of Sciences)
- Elias Khalil (University of Toronto)
- Ahmed Kheiri (Lancaster University)
- Yury Kochetov (Novosibirsk State University)
- Ilias Kotsireas (Wilfrid Laurier University)
- Jan Kronqvist (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
- Tomáš Kroupa (Czech Technical University in Prague)
- Dmitri Kvasov (University of Calabria)
- Xie Lin (University of Twente)
- Giusy Macrina (University of Calabria)
- Jayanta Mandi (KU Leuven)
- Vittorio Maniezzo (University of Bologna)
- Silvano Martello (University of Bologna)
- Laurent Moalic (Université de Haute-Alsace)
- Hossein Moosaei (Charles University-University of Bojnord)
- Matsatsinis Nikolaos (Technical University of Crete)
- Panos M Pardalos (University of Florida)
- Konstantinos Parsopoulos (University of Ioannina)
- Tommaso Pastore (University of Naples Federico II)
- Ornella Pisacane (Università Politecnica delle Marche)
- Vincenzo Piuri (University of Milan)
- Miroslav Rada (Prague University of Economics and Business)
- Michael Römer (Bielefeld University)
- Frédéric Saubion (Université d'Angers)
- Andrea Schaerf (University of Udine)
- Marc Sevaux (Université de Bretagne-Sud)
- Thomas Stützle (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
- Tatiana Tchemisova (University of Aveiro)
- Kevin Tierney (Bielefeld University)
- Sicco Verwer (Delft University of Technology)
- Michael Vrahatis (University of Patras)
- Yaoxin Wu (Eindhoven University of Technology)
- Dachuan Xu (Beijing University of Technology)
- Neil Yorke-Smith (Delft University of Technology)
- Qingfu Zhang (Essex University & City University of Hong Kong)
- Yingqian Zhang (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands)
Location, travel, accommodation
Milan
The LION 20 will be hosted by Universita' degli Studi Milano Bicocca
Contacts
Please contact us by email regarding any queries you may have in relation to the conference or general information.Email: antonio.candelieri@unimib.it
Posted on 2025-11-05 by Sarah Fores