Conference of Complex Systems 2025 - Satellite Session Food Systems, Siena Italy. 3 – 4 September 2025

This session invites contributions that apply complexity science frameworks to understand and transform food systems.

Call for Contributions

We look forward to contributions that advance our understanding of food systems as complex adaptive systems and identify leverage points for transformative change.

How to submit:

To submit your application for an oral presentation — onsite only, please prepare an abstract of 1-2 pages in pdf, which must include a mandatory figure. Send the abstract to r.cremadesrodeja  including ‘Abstract Food Systems’ in the subject.

About

Food systems worldwide face unprecedented challenges from climate change, population growth, economic inequalities, and ecological degradation. These systems exhibit complex behaviours with emergent properties, non-linear dynamics, and intricate feedback loops that require novel analytical approaches. This session invites contributions that apply complexity science frameworks to understand and transform food systems.

We welcome theoretical, methodological, and empirical work from diverse disciplines including (but not limited to):
- Agroecology
- Food economics
- Supply chain modeling
- Social-ecological systems
- Policy analysis
- Network science applications
- Computational modeling
- Resilience assessment

Potential topics of interest include:
- Agent-based modeling of food system behaviors
- Network analysis of food supply chains
- Resilience thresholds in agricultural systems
- Complex adaptive systems approaches to food policy
- Emergent properties in local/global food networks
- Non-linear dynamics in food price volatility
- Adaptation pathways for climate-resilient food systems
- Social-ecological feedbacks in food systems
- Food system transitions and tipping points
- Participatory complex systems modeling with stakeholders

Important dates

• 15/03/2025: Contribution submissions start.
• TBA: Contribution submissions deadline.
• TBA:  Extended contribution submissions deadline.
• TBA: Notifications of acceptance.
• TBA: Early-bird CCS2025 registration deadline.
• TBD (3 or 4 September 2025): Food Systems Satellite.
• 1 – 5 September 2025: CCS 2025 (main event).

Publication Opportunities

Selected papers may be invited for submission at Complexity (Wiley), Complex Systems (PLOS), and Journal of Computational Science (Elsevier).

Organisers

•  Assoc.Prof. Roger Cremades (Chair), University of Leeds (UK).
• Prof. Yamir Moreno (committee member), Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI), University of Zaragoza, Spain; and CENTAI Institute, Torino, Italy. 
• Ariadna Fosch (committee member), Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI), University of Zaragoza, Spain; and CENTAI Institute, Torino, Italy.