Deadline: November 15, 2025

One of the aims of ISSMO is to bring together researchers and practitioners in the field of structural and multidisciplinary optimization, by means of international meetings having a high scientific standard. We call for hosting the 17th World Congress of Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (WCSMO-17) to be held in May/June 2027.

The selection criteria include:

• up-to-date conference facilities,
• affordable costs to all members of the society (including registration, hotel, travel expenses, considering also free lunches, reception, banquet, excursions etc.),
• proven conference organizing experience and strength of the local organizing group,
• geographical diversity, reflecting the distribution of SMO researchers over the world.

The last item is meant to imply a reasonably uniform distribution of Congresses over three zones, namely Asia-Australia, Europe-Africa, and North & South Americas (see list of past locations at the bottom of this call).

The Congress should be held within the mid-May 2027 – mid-June 2027 period and is expected to last between 4.5 and 5 days.

Timeline:

• Submission of proposal to ISSMO EC: November 15, 2025
• Decision by ISSMO Executive Committee: January 2026

All proposals must contain the following information:

Costs

1. Registration fee to be charged (including a 10% fee per participant to be transferred to ISSMO as a membership fee).
2. Special rates should apply for students (including PhD students). State this rate and the expected number of students. Student registration should give full access to all congress events, like any regular participant. ISSMO recommends the extension of similar special rates to retired Professors who are the members of ISSMO.
3. Details should be provided regarding what is covered by the registration fee (e.g., proceedings, coffee breaks, lunches, social functions, excursions, reception, banquet, transport, etc.). The excursion cost should be included in the registration fee.
4. Expected amount of financial support to be acquired from, e.g., companies, foundations, universities and local governments.
5. Budgeted amount of travel, subsistence, and registration subsidies for participants in need. If part of this amount is requested from ISSMO funds, please state the magnitude of this amount.

1. Budgeted amount for hosting representatives of the Executive Committee and International Paper Committee (a total of 2-3 persons) for a 2-day site visit in advance of the conference (e.g., cost of local accommodation, meals, local transports, etc.)

Location and venue

1. There should be at least one room with minimum 500 seats.
2. Accessibility of the congress site by various means of transport (air, train, car, etc.) and estimated costs of travel from various regions of the world to the hosting city.
3. Description of conference facilities for 5-8 parallel sessions and open spaces for poster sessions.
4. Touristic attractions of the surroundings of the conference site, for participants and accompanying persons.
5. Prices of accommodation, including expected group rates and low-cost hotel options for participants with very limited budgets. Distances of these hotels from the congress venue and travel times should also be stated.

Logistics

1. Expected number of participants.
2. Proposed schedule of events, including timing of the Welcome Reception, General Assembly, SOTA Panel, Banquet, and Excursion. Proposers are encouraged to consider holding the Excursion mid-week (e.g., Wednesday Afternoon) in the tradition of past WCSMO.
3. Details regarding coffee breaks, lunches and banquet are important for a proper quality assessment.
4. Prior experience of the proponents in organization of meetings at a similar scale.
5. A plan for the preparation of the conference, including deadlines for submittal of abstract, meeting of the International Paper Committee, payment timeline of registration fee, advertising/promotion of the conference, dissemination of abstracts, etc.

It is recommended that the proposal contains letters of endorsement from institutions, universities, organizations and/or local government that will support the proposers in organizing the Congress.

Based on the locations of past WCSMOs, preference will be given to proposals from the Americas, however proposals from any region are welcome:

WCSMO-1, Goslar, Germany, 1995

WCSMO-2, Zakopane, Poland, 1997

WCSMO-3, Buffalo NY, USA, 1999

WCSMO-4, Dalian, China, 2001

WCSMO-5, Lido di Jesolo, Italy, 2003

WCSMO-6, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2005

WCSMO-7, Seoul, Korea, 2007

WCSMO-8, Lisbon, Portugal, 2009

WCSMO-9, Shizuoka, Japan, 2011

WCSMO-10, Orlando FL, USA, 2013

WCSMO-11, Sydney, Australia, 2015

WCSMO-12, Braunschweig, Germany, 2017

WCSMO-13, Beijing, China, 2019

WCSMO-14, Boulder CO, USA, 2021 (virtual)

WCSMO-15, Cork, Ireland, 2023

WCSMO-16, Kobe, Japan, 2025