International Conference on Software and Systems Reuse, Product Lines, and Configuration (VARIABILITY 2026): First Call for Workshop Proposals

[George Angelos Papadopoulos]

*** First 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 4 pages long. Submissions must follow the

Springer guidelines:

https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines

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