We are pleased to announce the AUTOMATA & ACRI 2026 joint conferences, for the first time combining AUTOMATA and ACRI, the leading conferences on the fundamental aspects and applications of cellular automata. The event will be held from July 6th to July 10th at Ghent University, Belgium. AUTOMATA 2026 takes place from July 6th to July 8th, and is followed by ACRI 2026 from July 8th to July 10th. Reduced registration fees apply if you are attending both conferences!

Scope

Papers presenting original and unpublished research on all fundamental aspects and applications of cellular automata (CA), and related discrete complex systems (DCS) are sought.

AUTOMATA

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Dynamic, topological, ergodic, algebraic and combinatorial aspects
• Algorithmic, computability and complexity issues
• Information-theoretic aspects
• Emergent properties
• Formal languages
• Symbolic dynamics and connections to continuous systems
• Tilings, rewriting and substitution systems
• Computability theory
• Models of parallelism and distributed systems
• Asynchronous versus synchronous models
• Automata networks
• Sandpile models
• CA in machine and deep learning

ACRI

Given the venue of the 2026 edition of ACRI, we especially welcome contributions using CAs and associated models for understanding, describing or optimizing

• Biological Processes (evolutionary processes, immune responses, infectious diseases, species interaction, tissue growth, tumor development, and many others)
• Natural Processes (contamination processes, desertification, earthquakes, mass flow processes, wildfires, and many others)

Other topics of interest include (but not limited to):

• Tools and Theory: new algorithms based on CA, theory of computation, CA environments,...
• Dynamical Complex Systems and Emergent Phenomena,
• Image Processing and Pattern Recognition,
• Natural Computing and Unconventional Computing,
• Quantum Cellular Automata,
• Complex Networks, Games on Networks,
• Bio-Inspired Computing,
• Cryptology and Cryptography,
• Lattice Gas and Lattice Boltzmann Models,
• Agent-Based Models,
• Mathematical Systems Theory: analysis, optimisation and control, identification,
• Modelling of Physical or Chemical Systems: hydrodynamics, reaction diffusion, systems, complex flows,
• Socio-Economical Models: vehicular and pedestrian traffic, urbanism, market.

Submission Guidelines

Each submission must be based on unpublished original work and be submitted for the conference of your choosing (AUTOMATA or ACRI). All submissions must be submitted in Portable Document Format (PDF) through EasyChair.

There are three categories of submission: full papers, exploratory papers, and extended abstracts.

• Full papers (≤ 12 pages, deadline April 3rd) aim at complete and dense research. These submissions will be refereed and selected by the Programme Committee. The manuscripts are of length up to 12 pages (but you can propose longer papers if justified) and written in English. The format must follow the Springer LNCS templates.

• Exploratory papers (≤ 8 pages, deadline May 15th) aim for quick reporting of recent discoveries and partial results. These submissions will go through a lighter evaluation process.

• Extended abstracts (≤ 2 pages, deadline May 15th) allow the presentation of topics that are intended to be interesting for the CA community. They may contain content that has already been published or new ideas that can be presented but are not yet fully matured. These submissions will go through a lighter evaluation process.

All accepted submissions (full papers, exploratory papers and extended abstracts) must be presented at the conference!

Important dates for full papers

• Submission deadline: 3 April
• Notification to authors: 5 May
• Camera-ready papers: 19 May

Important dates for exploratory papers and extended abstracts

• Submission deadline: 15 May
• Notification to authors: 25 May
• Camera-ready papers: 2 June

Publication

Accepted full papers will be included in the proceedings published by Springer in the LNCS Series. Exploratory papers and extended abstracts will not be included in the LNCS proceedings, but will be published as local proceedings and uploaded on an open access repository.

Venue

The AUTOMATA & ACRI 2026 event will be held at Ghent University’s Faculty of Bioscience Engineering in Belgium. All conference activities will take place at Campus Coupure, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Gent.

Contact

All questions should be sent by e-mail at the following address: automataandacri2026@ugent.be