The 53rd EATCS International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP) will take place between 7–10 July, 2026.

ICALP is the main conference and annual meeting of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS). As usual, the conference will be preceded by a series of workshops, which will take place on 6 July 2026.
Call for Papers

Papers presenting original research on all aspects of theoretical computer science are sought. Typical, but not exclusive, topics of interest are:
Track A: Algorithms Complexity and Games

Algorithmic and computational complexity aspects of biological and social networks
Algorithmic Aspects of Security and Privacy
Algorithmic Game Theory and Mechanism Design
Approximation algorithms
Combinatorial Optimization
Combinatorics in Computer Science
Computational Complexity
Computational Geometry
Computational Learning Theory
Cryptography
Data Structures
Design and Analysis of Algorithms
Distributed and Mobile Computing
Dynamic Algorithms
Foundations of Machine Learning
Graph Mining and Network Analysis
Online Algorithms
Parallel and External Memory Computing
Parameterized Complexity
Quantum Computing
Randomness in Computation
Sublinear Time and Streaming Algorithms
Theoretical Foundations of Algorithmic Fairness

Track B: Automata, Logic, Semantics, and Theory of Programming

Algebraic and Categorical Models of Computation
Automata, Logic, and Games
Database Theory, Constraint Satisfaction Problems, and Finite Model Theory
Formal and Logical Aspects of Learning
Formal and Logical Aspects of Security and Privacy
Logic in Computer Science and Theorem Proving
Models of Computation: Complexity and Computability
Models of Concurrent, Distributed, and Mobile Systems
Models of Reactive, Hybrid, and Stochastic Systems
Principles and Semantics of Programming Languages
Program Analysis, Verification, and Synthesis
Type Systems and Typed Calculi

Important dates and information

Abstract Registration Deadline: 3 February 2026 (AoE)
Submission Deadline: 6 February 2026 (AoE)
Track B rebuttal period: 21–24 March 2026 (For Track A: Authors will be contacted only if there are correctness issues)
Author notification: 20 April 2026
Conference: 7–10 July 2026 (Workshops on July 6)

Submission Guidelines

Submissions to ICALP 2026 use HotCRP system:

Submission server Track A: https://icalp26-a.hotcrp.com
Submission server Track B: https://icalp26-b.hotcrp.com

Guidelines:

Papers must present original research on the theory of computer science. No prior publication and no simultaneous submission to other publication outlets (either a conference or a journal) is allowed. Authors are encouraged to also make full versions of their submissions freely accessible in an on-line repository such as ArXiv, HAL, ECCC.

Submissions should start with a title page consisting of the title of the paper, no author information (see below), and an abstract. There is no page limit and authors are encouraged to use the “full version” of their paper as the submission. The submission should contain, within the initial ten pages following the title page, a clear presentation of the merits of the paper, its main contributions, and key concepts and technical ideas used to obtain the results. Submissions must provide the proofs which can enable the main mathematical claims of the paper to be verified. Although there is no bound on the length of a submission, material other than the abstract, references, and the first ten pages will be read at the committee’s discretion. The submission should be typeset using readable fonts (e.g. 11-point), in a single-column format with ample spacing throughout (e.g. single-space between lines and 1-inch margins all around).

Submissions are anonymous. The conference will employ a lightweight double-blind reviewing process. Submissions should not reveal the identity of the authors in any way. Authors should ensure that any references to their own related work are in the third person (e.g., not “We build on our previous work…” but rather “We build on the work of …”).

The purpose of this double-blind process is to help PC members and external reviewers come to an initial judgment about the paper without bias, and not to make it impossible for them to discover who the authors are if they were to try. Nothing should be done in the name of anonymity that weakens the submission or makes the job of reviewing the paper more difficult. In particular, important references should not be omitted. In addition, authors should feel free to disseminate their ideas or draft versions of their paper as they normally would. For example, authors may post drafts of their papers on the web, submit them to arXiv, and give talks on their research ideas.

Submissions authored or co-authored by members of the program committee are allowed.

The submissions are done via HotCRP to the appropriate track of the conference. The use of pdflatex or similar pdf generating tools is mandatory. Papers that deviate significantly from these requirements risk rejection without consideration of merit.

For Track A, the authors will be contacted only when the correctness issues are of concern. For Track B, the authors will have the opportunity to view and respond to initial reviews. Further instructions will be sent to authors of submitted papers before that time.

At least one author of each accepted paper is expected to register for the conference, and all talks are in-person. In exceptional cases, there may be support for remotely presenting a talk.

Papers authored only by students should be marked as such upon submission in order to be eligible for the best student paper awards of the track.

Proceedings

ICALP proceedings are published in the Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs) series. This is a series of high-quality conference proceedings across all fields in informatics established in cooperation with Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz Center for Informatics. LIPIcs volumes are published according to the principle of Open Access, i.e., they are available online and free of charge. The accepted papers will need to comply with the LIPIcs style.
Awards

During the conference, the following awards will be delivered:

EATCS award
Presburger award
EATCS distinguished dissertation award
Best papers for Track A and Track B
Best student papers for Track A and Track B

Program Committee
Track A

Sayan Bhattacharya (Track co-chair)
Danupon Nanongkai (Track co-chair)

Track B

Michael Benedikt (Track chair)

Steering Committee

Thore Husfeldt
Pino Italiano