*** Last Call for Workshop Proposals ***
International Conference on Software and Systems Reuse, Product Lines, and Configuration (VARIABILITY 2026)
29 September - 2 October 2026, 5* St. Raphael Resort and Marina Limassol, Cyprus
https://conf.researchr.org/home/variability-2026
VARIABILITY is a new conference that has been merged of three prominent conferences focussing on software and systems variability, configuration and reuse: SPLC (the International Systems and Software Product Line Conference, 29 successful editions, ranked as a top conference), VaMoS (the International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems, 19 successful editions), and ICSR (the International Conference on Systems and Software Reuse, 22 successful editions).
We invite you to submit proposals for half-day or full-day workshops in any area related to the field of Software and Systems Reuse, Product Lines, and Configuration, all of which fall under the broader area of Variability. In particular, workshops on challenging, emerging areas related to the conference topics are especially sought. We particularly encourage workshop proposals for highly interactive and collaborative workshops, rather than mini-conferences, e.g., apart from the traditional short and long papers, consider allowing position papers with only one page (not included in the proceedings) and focus on a lively discussion after the presentation, to foster new ideas and gather feedback (rather than just defending the presented work). The expected date of the workshops will be the September 29th, 2026, before the main track of the conference.
Submissions / Publishing
VARIABILITY workshop papers will be published in a volume of the conference proceedings published by Springer. Moreover, a one-page summary of each accepted workshop will be published in the proceedings as well.
Workshop proposals should be authored by at least two organizers, preferably from different institutions, and they should contain the following three sections and address each corresponding point:
1. Organizers • Name: organizers’ full names • Contact information: affiliations, job titles, postal addresses, e-mail addresses, URLs, and phone • Brief biography: 100-200 words, focusing on the organizers’ expertise in the field and experience as workshop organizers
2. Workshop Content • Title: workshop title and acronym • Abstract: max 150 words describing the workshop (suitable for the conference’s website) • Tentative Website URL • Topics and motivation: • What are the topics, themes, and areas of interest of the workshop? • How is the workshop relevant to VARIABILITY? • How does the workshop connect VARIABILITY to other research communities? • Goals and expected results: • Explicitly state the goals of the workshop and how you intend to reach them • What are the expected results of the workshop? • How will these results be disseminated? • Format: • What is the planned workshop format (paper presentations, working sessions, invited talks (please note here that such talks are not financially supported by the conference), lightning talks, demonstrations, etc.)? • To avoid duplicated topics and cancellations, did you coordinate with or (plan to) merge workshops on the same/similar topics from previous years (if there are any)? • What will be done to stimulate collaborative interaction? • What are the planned pre- and post-workshop activities? • Participants: • What is the expected number of submissions and participants? Provide a plan for attracting sufficient submissions and promoting attendance • If applicable, please provide information from previous or related workshops. Have there been previous workshops on the same or a closely related topic? When, where and with how many participants? • Special room equipment (please note that VARIABILITY conference and the workshops are in-person events) like flip charts, microphone, etc. • Do you plan for a half-day or full-day workshop?
• Program Committee: list of tentative program committee members, names and affiliations
3. Preliminary Call for Papers This will necessarily repeat some of the information from the previous sections but should be targeted towards prospective participants. It should address the following items: • Overview of the motivation, topics, and goals • Workshop format • Deadlines of the workshop (see dates in this call for proposals) • Submission guidelines and review process • References to previous workshops (websites) • Dissemination campaign to distribute the CFP
4. References to previous workshops (websites)
Submission Instructions
Please send your workshop proposals using EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=variability2026
A workshop proposal must be at most 8 pages long. Submissions must follow the Springer guidelines: https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gui...
Relevant supporting material, such as proceedings from previous editions of the proposed workshop or other workshops organized by the proposal authors, should be included if available but are not required for submission.
Acceptance Criteria
Each workshop proposal will be evaluated according to the relevance of its topic, the expertise and experience of the workshop organizers, and the workshop’s potential for attracting participants and generating useful results. We underline the importance of active and creative workshops that foster a collaborative environment of interest to both practitioners and researchers, aiming, e.g., to evolve the field of Variability and to identify elements of joint future work. To obtain a balanced and cohesive workshop program, the Organizing Committee will collaborate closely with workshop organizers and reserves the right to circulate proposals to other submitters in view of possible workshop mergers. The organizers of accepted workshops will be required to create and maintain a website in a timely manner to serve as a workshop information center and to provide a repository for documenting pre- and post-workshop activities.
At least one author of each accepted proposal must register and attend VARIABILITY 2026 in order for the workshop to be accepted and the summary of the workshop published.
The submission and review platform for workshop papers will be the one for the main conference (i.e., all workshops will be as different tracks under the same Easy Chair installation).
Important Dates (AoE)
• Workshop Proposals: 2 March 2025 • Notification of Acceptance: 16 March 2026 • Workshop Papers Submission: 15 June 2026 • Workshop Papers Notification: 7 July, 2026 • Camera-Ready Version Submission: 14 July, 2026 • Workshop Summary: 14 July, 2026 • Author Registration: 14 July, 2026
Organisation
General Chairs • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus • Gilles Perrouin, FNRS & University of Namur, Belgium
Research Track Chairs • Thorsten Berger, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany • Ina Schaefer, KIT, Germany
Industry Track Chairs • Shaukat Ali, Simula Research Lab and Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway • Martin Becker, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany
Journal First Track Chairs • Mathieu Acher, University Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA, France • Xhevahire Tërnava, LTCI, Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France
Doctoral Symposium Track Chairs • Rick Rabiser, LIT CPS, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria • Iris Reinhartz-Berger, University of Haifa, Israel
Demos and Tools Track Chairs • Sandra Greiner, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark • Leopoldo Teixeira, Federal University of Pernambuco
Projects Showcase Chairs • Daniel Struber, Chalmers, University of Gothenburg, Radbound University, Sweden • Dalila Tamzalit, Nantes Université, France
Hall of Fame Chairs • Martin Becker, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany • Goetz Botterweck, Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre and University of Limerick, Ireland • Natsuko Noda, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan
Workshops Chairs • Lidia Fuentes, Universidad de Malaga, Spain • Malte Lochau, University of Siegen, Germany
Tutorials Chairs • Loek Cleophas, Eindhoven University of Technology and Stellenbosch University, The Netherlands • Mahsa Varshosaz, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Proceedings Chair • Sophie Fortz, King's College London, UK
Publicity Chairs • Wesley Assunção, North Carolina State University, USA • Kentaro Yoshimura, Hitachi Ltd, Japan
Local Organiser and Finance Chair • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus