Call for Workshop Proposals

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.

VARIABILITY is a new conference that has been merged of three prominent conferences focussing on software and systems variability, onfiguration 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

Submissions must follow the Springer LNCS guidelines:
https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines

• Regular Papers should be mature research contributions and must be up to 16 pages, including references.
• Short Papers should present work in progress or novel ideas and must be up to 9 pages, including references.

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: March 02, 2026
• Notification: March 16, 2026
• Workshop Papers Submission: June 30, 2026
• Workshop Papers Notification: 15 July, 2026
• Camera Ready: 31 July, 2026
• Author Registration: 31 July, 2026

MODEVAR - International Workshop on Languages for Modelling Variability

Workshop Homepage: https://modevar.github.io/

Description

Feature models were invented in 1990 and have been recognized as one of the main contributions to the Software Product Line community. Although several attempts have been made to establish and study a sort of standard variability modeling language (e.g., OVM, CVL, TVL, .) there is still no consensus on a simple feature modeling language. There can be many motivations to have one but among others, there is one that is very important: information sharing among researchers, tools, or developers. Following the spirit of the previous MODEVAR workshops, this meeting plans to be a full-day, interactive event where all participants shall share knowledge about how to build up a simple feature model language that the community can agree on.

Scope

We invite submissions considering topics related to variability modeling languages:

• Concepts: domain modeling, language constructs, mapping to other artifacts.
• Usages: writing, reading, generating, reverse engineering, (de-)composition, benchmarking.
• Tools: (collaborative) editing, storage/repositories, exchange, translation to other representations, analyses, and testing.
• Analyzing existing languages and approaches: Feature Modelling, Decision Modelling, OVM, UML-based, KConfig, Delta-Oriented Modelling, CVL, TVL, etc.

The topics are not limited to the list above. In particular, we invite submissions addressing the scope of the VaMoS conference.

Important Dates:

Workshop Papers Submission: June 30, 2026

Workshop Papers Notification: 15 July, 2026

Camera Ready: 31 July, 2026

Author Registration: 31 July, 2026

Submission guidelines:

Please use the SPLC 2026 - MODEVAR Track to submit your paper.

• Authors interested in participating in the workshop are requested to submit either:
• Regular paper (max. 16 pages including references) that presents original research, lessons learned, or a well-argued vision-related (but not limited) to the topics on variability modeling languages.
• Short paper (max. 9 pages including references) that describes sound new ideas and concepts under research or experimental studies.
• Tool paper (max. 9 pages including references) that describes a novel tool or sufficient increment of an existing tool targeting variability modeling languages.

Papers must use the Springer LNCS template. All papers submitted to the workshop must be unpublished original work and must not have been submitted elsewhere for publication.

Contact:

Víctor Juan Lamas Sardiña, victor.lamas@udc.es

Mathis Weiß, Mathis.Weiss@uni-siegen.de

GAIV 2026 – Workshop on Generative AI and Variability

Co-located with VARIABILITY 2026, September 29, 2026

Call for Papers

Overview

The Workshop on Generative AI and Variability (GAIV 2026) invites high-quality contributions from researchers and practitioners in software engineering, artificial intelligence, and related disciplines, focusing on the intersection of generative AI (GenAI) and variability-intensive systems. As configurable systems and GenAI technologies rapidly evolve, their interaction raises new opportunities and challenges: GenAI can automate variability engineering tasks, while variability introduces complexity in AI pipelines, prompts, and generated artifacts. GAIV provides a dedicated forum to explore this emerging research space and foster collaboration between the variability and AI-in-SE communities.

Topics of Interest

GenAI for Variability Engineering Feature model extraction, completion, and synthesis LLM-assisted configuration and decision support Automated SPL migration and reengineering GenAI-supported testing, analysis, and debugging Documentation and traceability generation Domain modeling and ontology extraction Variability in GenAI Systems Variability in prompts, parameters, and outputs Product line techniques for AI pipelines and model families Reuse of AI components across variants Consistency and traceability of generated artifacts Feature modeling for AI configuration spaces Testing and quality assurance of AI-based systems Cross-Cutting Themes Empirical studies and evaluations Human–AI collaboration Industrial experience reports Ethical, legal, and quality aspects

Workshop Format

GAIV is planned as an interactive half-day workshop (extendable to full day).
The program includes: Paper presentations with discussion Invited talk from the AI/SE community Interactive working group session to identify research challenges

Submission Guidelines

Paper Types:

• Regular Papers should be mature research contributions and must be up to 16 pages, including references.
• Short Papers should present work in progress or novel ideas and must be up to 9 pages, including references.

Formatting

Submissions must follow the Springer LNCS format: https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines

Review & Publication

Single-blind peer review (≥2 reviewers) Evaluation: novelty, relevance, rigor, clarity Accepted papers (except position papers) will appear in the VARIABILITY 2026 Proceedings (LNCS)

Important Dates

Workshop Papers Submission: June 30, 2026

Workshop Papers Notification: 15 July, 2026

Camera Ready: 31 July, 2026

Author Registration: 31 July, 2026

Workshop: September 29th 2026

Goals

GAIV aims to:

• Connect variability and GenAI research communities
• Identify key challenges and research directions
• Develop a shared research agenda
• Foster interdisciplinary collaborations

Organizers

Martin Becker – Fraunhofer IESE, Germany Kristof Meixner – TU Wien, Austria Kentarou Yoshimura - Hitachi, Japan

Submission

Submissions will be handled via the VARIABILITY 2026 system (https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=variability2026).
Further details will be available on the workshop website - https://sites.google.com/view/gaiv-2026