The first edition was held in Paris in 1998. Subsequent editions took place in Göteborg (1999), Edinburgh (2000), Lake Como (2001), Kinsale (2002), Essex (2003), Coimbra (2004), Lausanne (2005), Budapest (2006), Valencia (2007, first edition under the name EvoStar), Napoli (2008), Tübingen (2009), Istanbul (2010), Torino (2011), Málaga (2012), Vienna (2013), Granada (2014), Copenhagen (2015), Porto (2016), Amsterdam (2017), Parma (2018) and Leipzig (2019). In 2020, Evostar was to be held in Seville, Spain, but due to
COVID-19 pandemic, it was finally held as an online conference. In 2021 Evostar was expected to be held in Seville, but was again held as an online conference. In 2022 Evostar was held in Madrid, Spain, as a hybrid event (in person and online). It was followed in 2023 by
Brno in the
Czech Republic, in 2024 by
Aberystwyth, UK, in 2025 by
Trieste, Italy, and in 2026 by
Toulouse, France, again in person and via the
Internet. In 2027, EvoStar will take place in Mainz, Germany.
Mainz, Germany / Hybrid event (2027) The next Evostar will 31 March -- 2 April 2027 in Mainz.
Toulouse / Hybrid event (2026) The 29th edition took place during 8-10 April and was held at
Toulouse Capitole University and also
online (
Zoom). EuroGP: Luca Manzoni, Sylvain Cussat-Blanc and Qi Chen. EvoCOP: Martin S. Krejca and
Nelishia Pillay. EvoMusArt: Penousal Machado, Juan J. Romero and Sérgio Rebelo. EvoApplications: Pablo García-Sánchez, Josefa Díaz-Álvarez and Aidan Murphy. There were two keynotes: Simon Lucas, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Queen Mary University of London and Guy Theraulaz, CNRS Research Director, Toulouse. Jean-Baptiste Mouret, who was the 2025 winner of the Julian Francis Miller award for his pioneering work on the MAP-Elites algorithm, gave an invited talk.
Joshua Bongard was awarded the 2026 Julian Francis Miller award for revolutionary work on robotics.
Trieste / Hybrid event (2025) The 28th edition took place during 23-25 April and was held in
University of Trieste but also
online (
Zoom). EuroGP:
Bing Xue, Mario Giacobini and Luca Manzoni. EvoCOP: Martin S. Krejca and Markus Wagner. EvoMusArt: Penousal Machado, Colin Johnson and Iria Santos. EvoApplications: Pablo García-Sánchez,
Emma Hart and Sarah L. Thomson. There were two
keynotes: Tea Tušar, assistant professor
Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia, presented "Ideals and Realities of Benchmarking in Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization". Daniela Besozzi, associate professor
University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, delivered the closing keynote "Mathematical modelling, computational intelligence and machine learning in biomedicine: it takes (at least) three to tango". Jean-Baptiste Mouret was the 2025 winner of the Julian Francis Miller award for his pioneering work on the MAP-Elites algorithm.
Aberystwyth/ Hybrid event (2024) The 27th edition took place during 3-5 April and was held in
Aberystwyth but also
online (
Zoom). EuroGP:
Bing Xue, Mario Giacobini and Luca Manzoni. EvoCOP: Thomas Stützle and Markus Wagner. EvoMusArt: Colin Johnson, Sérgio Rebelo and Iria Santos. EvoApplications: Stephen Smith, João Correia and Christian Cintrano. For the third time there was a joint event Evolutionary computation and machine learning (EML) between EuroGP and EvoApps: Penousal Machado and Mengjie Zhang. There were two
keynotes: Jon Timmis, vice chancellor of
Aberystwyth University, presented "Evolution, immunity and robots: An interdisciplinary adventure", on his research inspired by the immune system and natural swarms. The conference was closed by
Sabine Hauert "Evolving swarms across scales: from nanomedicine to city logistics". Between these two invited plenary talks, Marc Schoenauer moderated a plenary "Coffee" with
Dario Floreano and
Hod Lipson, joint winners of this year's Julian Francis Miller award.
Brno / Hybrid event (2023) The 26th edition took place during 12-14 April and was held mostly in
Brno but also
online (
Zoom and
YouTube). EuroGP: Gisele Pappa, Mario Giacobini and Zdenek Vasicek. EvoCOP: Leslie Pérez Cáceres and Thomas Stützle. EvoMusArt: Colin Johnson, Nereida Rodríguez-Fernández and Sérgio M. Rebelo. EvoApplications: João Correia, Stephen Smith and Raneem Qaddoura. For the second time there was a joint event Evolutionary computation and machine learning between EuroGP and EvoApps, Wolfgang Banzhaf and Penousal Machado. This time there were three
keynotes: Marek Vacha "
Gregor Mendel: a story beyond peas" and Evelyne Lutton "Exploring the Interplay of Cooperation and Competition in evolutionary computation". This year they were joined by Susan Stepney, the winner of the Julian Francis Miller award.
Posters were on site and on line via Gather Town.
Madrid / Hybrid event (2022) The 25th edition took place on 20-22 April and was held in
Madrid and
online (
Zoom and
YouTube). EuroGP: Eric Medvet, Gisele Pappa and
Bing Xue. EvoCOP: Leslie Pérez Cáceres and Sébastien Verel. EvoMusArt: Tiago Martins, Nereida Rodríguez-Fernández and Sérgio M. Rebelo. EvoApplications: Juan Luis Jiménez Laredo, J. Ignacio Hidalgo and Kehinde Oluwatoyin Babaagba. For the first time joint event Evolutionary computation and machine learning between EuroGP and EvoApps, Wolfgang Banzhaf and Penousal Machado. As usual there were two
keynotes:
Gabriela Ochoa "Illuminating search spaces" on YouTube and Pedro Larrañaga "Estimation of Distribution Algorithms in Machine Learning" on YouTube
Posters were on site and on line via Gather Town.
Online event (2021) The 24th edition took place on 7–9 April and was held as an online event. Many of the online presentations were recorded and are available via the organisers' "SPECIES Society" YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/SPECIESSociety/featured channel. EuroGP: Ting Hu, Nuno Lourenço, Eric Medvet. EvoApps: Pedro Castillo, Juanlu Jiménez-Laredo. EvoCOP: Christine Zarges, Sébastien Verel. EvoMUSART: Juan Romero, Tiago Martins, Nereida Rodríguez-Fernández. Late-breaking Abstracts: A.M. Mora, A.I. Esparcia-Alcázar https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.11804
Online event (2020) The 23rd edition took place on 15–17 April and was for the first time in history held as an online event. Sessions were available via
videoconferencing for registered participants, who could remotely present their work and interact during question time. Conference program chairs were Ting Hu and Nuno Lourenço for EuroGP, Pedro Castillo-Valdivieso for EvoApplications, Luís Paquete and Christine Zarges for EvoCOP and Anikó Ekárt and Juan Romero for EvoMUSART. Anna Esparcia-Alcázar was Coordinator, João Correia was Publicity Chair and Francisco Chicano was Electronic Media Chair. Invited speakers were José Antonio Lozano (talk on The Essence of Combinatorial Optimization Problems, video available on) and Roberto Serra (Dynamically Critical Networks)
Leipzig (2019) The 22nd edition took place from 24 to 26 April in the premises of
Leipzig University of Applied Sciences in
Leipzig, with Hendrik Richter as local chair. Conference program chairs were Lukas Sekanina and Ting Hu for EuroGP, Paul Kaufmann and Pedro Castillo-Valdivieso for EvoApplications, Arnaud Liefooghe and Luís Paquete for EvoCOP and Anikó Ekárt and Antonios Liapis for EvoMUSART. Anna Esparcia-Alcázar was Coordinator and Pablo García Sánchez was Publicity Chair. A total of 98 papers, short papers and late-breaking abstracts were presented in 22 conference sessions plus a general poster session The opening invited speaker was
Risto Miikkulainen (on Creative AI through Evolutionary Computation) while
Manja Marz gave the closing keynote (on
RNA evolution with long read
sequencing methods).
Parma (2018) The 2018 edition took place on April 4–6 in the premises of the
Università degli Studi di Parma in
Parma, with Stefano Cagnoni as local chair. Conference program chairs were Mauro Castelli and Lukas Sekanina for EuroGP, Kevin Sim and Paul Kaufmann for EvoApplications, Arnaud Liefooghe and Manuel López-Ibáñez for EvoCOP and Juan Romero and Antonios Liapis for EvoMUSART. Coordinators were Jennifer Willies and Anna Esparcia-Alcázar and Pablo García Sánchez was Publicity Chair. A total of 116 papers, short papers and late-breaking abstracts were presented in 24 conference sessions plus a general poster session. The opening invited speaker was
Una-May O'Reilly (whose talk versed on adversarial dynamics), while Penousal Machado delivered the closing keynote (on evolution art and sex).
Amsterdam (2017) The 20th edition took place on 19–21 April in
De Bazel in
Amsterdam (Netherlands) with Evert Haasdijk and Jacqueline Heinerman serving as local chair. Conference program chairs were James McDermott and Mauro Castelli for EuroGP; Bin Hu and Manuel López-Ibáñez for EvoCOP; João Correia and Vic Ciesielski for EvoMUSART; Giovanni Squillero for EvoApplications. Lukáš Sekanina, Antonios Liapis, and Kevin Sim served as Publication Chairs of the different events. Pablo García Sánchez was the Publicity Chair, while Jennifer Willies, the Coordinator. The invited speakers were
Kenneth De Jong (
EC: Past, Present and Future) and Arthur Kordon (
Evolutionary Computation in Industry: A Realistic Overview). A total of 210 papers were presented: 108 in EvoApplications, 34 in EuroGP, 39 in EvoCOP, and 29 in EvoMUSART.
Porto (2016) The 19th edition took place between March 30 and April 1 in Seminário de Vilar Rua Arcediago Van Zeller in
Porto (Portugal) with Penousal Machado and Ernesto Costa serving as local chair. Conference program chairs were Malcolm Heywood and James McDermott for EuroGP; Bin Hu and Francisco Chicano for EvoCOP; Colin Johnson and Vic Ciesielski for EvoMUSART; Giovanni Squillero for EvoApplications. Mauro Castelli, João Correia, and Paolo Burelli were Publication Chairs of the different events. Pablo García Sánchez was the Publicity Chair, while Jennifer Willies, the Coordinator. The invited speakers were Richard Forsyth (
The evolution of BEAGLE: Confessions of a mongrel rule-breeder) and Kenneth Sörensen (
Metaphors in metaheuristics - a symptom of a deeper ailment?). A total of 218 papers were presented: 113 in EvoApplications, 36 in EuroGP, 44 in EvoCOP, and 25 in EvoMUSART.
Copenhagen (2015) The 18th edition took place between 08 and 10 April in the
National Museum of Denmark in
Copenhagen (Denmark) with Paolo Burelli and Sebastian Risi serving as local chair. Conference program chairs were Penousal Machado and Malcolm Heywood for EuroGP;
Gabriela Ochoa and Francisco Chicano for EvoCOP; Colin Johnson and Adrián Carballal for EvoMUSART; Antonio Mora for EvoApplications. Giovanni Squillero, João Correia, and James McDermott were Publication Chairs of the different events. Pablo García Sánchez was the Publicity Chair, while Jennifer Willies, the Coordinator. The invited speakers were
Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (
Open-Source Baby Robots for Science, Education and Art) and
Paulien Hogeweg (
Non-random random mutations: Evolution of Genotype-Phenoptype mapping). A total of 133 papers were presented: 73 in EvoApplications, 18 in EuroGP, 19 in EvoCOP, and 23 in EvoMUSART.
Málaga (2012) EvoStar 2012 took place in
Málaga (Spain), in the premises of the School of Computer Science and Telecommunications (Spanish:
ETSI Informática y Telecomunicaciones) of the
University of Málaga, 11–13 April. This edition was locally chaired by Carlos Cotta, and comprised five conferences, namely EuroGP, EvoCOP, EvoMUSART, EvoApplications (which in turn comprised 11 tracks), and EvoBIO, as well as a novel event termed EvoTransfer, oriented to present prospects for practical applications to an audience composed of company representatives. The global conference programme was composed of 144 articles, 22 in EvoCOP, 19 in EvoBio and 87 in EvoApplication), plus two plenary talks by
Craig Reynolds (computer graphics) (on Goal-oriented texture synthesis) and by
Jean-Pierre Changeux (on Models of the
brain: from
genes to
consciousness).
Istanbul (2010) EvoStar 2010 took place in
Istanbul (Turkey), in the premises of the
ITU Suleyman Demirel Cultural Center of the
Istanbul Technical University, 7–9 April. The conference was locally chaired by Şima Uyar. Stephen Dignum served as Publicity Chair and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO, a series of 11 EvoWorkshops and EvoPhD, the Graduate Student Workshop on Evolutionary Computation. Invited plenary speakers were
Kevin Warwick,
Jens Gottlieb and
Günther Raidl.
Tübingen (2009) EvoStar 2009 took place in
Tübingen (Germany), at Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, 15-17 April. The conference was locally chaired by Marc Ebner. Leonardo Vanneschi and Steven Gustafson served as EuroGP Program Chairs. Ivanoe De Falco and Antonio Della Cioppa served as Publicity Chairs and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO, a series of 11 EvoWorkshops. Invited plenary speakers were
Stuart Hameroff and Peter Schuster. EuroGP Proceedings were published in LNCS 5481.
Naples (2008) The 2008 edition of EvoStar took place in
Naples (Italy), in the premises of the Centro Congressi Federico II of the
University of Naples Federico II, 26–28 March. The conference was locally chaired by Ivanoe De Falco, Antonio Della Cioppa and Ernesto Tarantino. Anna I Esparcia-Alcázar served as Publicity Chair and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO, and a series of 8 EvoWorkshops. Invited plenary speaker were
Hans-Paul Schwefel and
Stefano Nolfi.
Valencia (2007) The first edition under the umbrella name EvoStar took place in
Valencia (Spain) in the
Universitat Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), with Anna I Esparcia-Alcázar as local chair, Leonardo Vanneschi as Publicity Chair and Jennifer Willies as coordinator. It consisted of three conferences, EuroGP, EvoCOP and EvoBIO and the series of EvoWorkshops. Marc Ebner and Michael O'Neill were co-chairs of EuroGP, with Anikó Ekárt as Publication chair; Carlos Cotta and Jano van Hemert were co-chairs of EvoCOP; Elena Marchiori, Jason H Moore and Jagath C. Rajapakse were co-chairs of EvoBIO and Mario Giacobini was coordinator of EvoWorkshops, which consisted of seven workshops: EvoCOMNET, EvoFIN, EvoIASP, EvoINTERACTION, EvoMUSART, EvoSTOC and EvoTRANSLOG. A total of 163 papers were presented: 35 in EuroGP, 21 in EvoCOP, 28 in EvoBIO and 79 in EvoWorkshops. Invited speakers were Ricard Solé,
Alan Bundy and
Chris Adami. ==Areas==