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LION20, https://www.lion20.org/, the 20th Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference, welcomes submissions to the special session on matheuristics.</div>
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Matheuristics — methods that leverage mathematical programming in heuristic contexts — have emerged as a powerful approach for solving complex optimization problems across a broad range of domains. As learning techniques and optimization models converge, new
opportunities arise for approaches that combine solution quality, robustness, and scalability.</div>
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This special session brings together researchers and practitioners from operations research, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to discuss advancements, challenges, and applications of matheuristics in the era of data-driven decision-making. We invite
contributions that either advance matheuristic methodologies or demonstrate their impact in practical settings, with the aim of bridging mathematical rigor and heuristic flexibility.</div>
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Topics of interest include novel hybrid designs, learning-enhanced matheuristics, decomposition and surrogate-based strategies, benchmarking studies and applications in logistics, energy, finance, and other domains.</div>
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Types of Submissions</div>
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When submitting a paper to LION 20, authors are required to select one of the following three types of papers:</div>
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Long paper: original novel and unpublished work (12- 15 pages in LNCS format);</div>
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Short paper: an extended abstract of novel work (6-11 pages in LNCS format);</div>
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Abstract: for oral presentation only (maximum 1000 words in LNCS format).</div>
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You can submit original and unpublished work either as a long paper (12-15 pages, including references) or short paper (6-11 pages, including references).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.</div>
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Paper Format</div>
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Please prepare your paper in English using the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) template, which is available [ Here ]. Papers must be submitted in PDF.</div>
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Submission System</div>
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All papers must be submitted using OpenReview (link coming soon)</div>
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All abstracts (for presentation only) must be submitted using OpenReview (link coming soon)</div>
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Review Process</div>
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Please note that the review process for LION 20 is single blind. The special session will be part of the regular conference and submissions are subject to the same peer review as all others.</div>
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Important dates</div>
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Full (long and short) paper: Feb 1, 2026</div>
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Author notification: April 1, 2026</div>
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Abstract submission (for presentation only): March 1 - April 8, 2026</div>
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Abstract notification: April 15, 2026</div>
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Registration opens: March 31, 2026</div>
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Early registration deadline: April 23, 2026</div>
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Late registration deadline: May 20, 2026</div>
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Camera-ready papers: May 15, 2026</div>
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Conference at Milan, Italy, June 15–19, 2026</div>
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<pre class="elementToProof"><div style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="elementToProof">________________________________________________________________
Vittorio Maniezzo, prof.
Department of Computer Science University of Bologna
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:vittorio.maniezzo@unibo.it">vittorio.maniezzo@unibo.it</a> || via dell’Università n. 50
orcid: 0000-0002-1220-1235 || 47521 Cesena, Italy
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/vittorio.maniezzo/en">https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/vittorio.maniezzo/en</a></div></pre>
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