16th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS 2026)
21–25 September 2026, Vitória, ES, Brazil – 9 September 2026, Online
Website: https://www.foisconference.org/

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FOIS is the flagship conference of the International Association for Ontology and its Applications (IAOA) a non-profit organization promoting interdisciplinary research and international collaboration in formal ontology.

FOIS is a meeting point for all researchers with an interest in formal ontology. Formal ontology is the systematic study of the types of entities and relations making up the domains of interest represented in modern information systems. The conference encourages submission of high quality, not previously published results on both theoretical issues and practical advancements. FOIS 2026 will have distinct tracks for foundational issues, ontology applications and methods, and domain ontologies.

FOIS aims to be a nexus of interdisciplinary research and communication for researchers from many domains engaging with formal ontology. Common application areas include conceptual modeling, database design, knowledge engineering and management, software engineering, organizational modeling, artificial intelligence, robotics, computational linguistics, the life sciences, bioinformatics and scientific research in general, geographic information science, information retrieval, library and information science, as well as the Semantic Web.

FOIS 2025 will be held both online and in Vitória, ES, Brazil, organized by the Federal University of Espírito Santo.

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Call for Papers (main track)
- Mandatory abstract submission: 16 March 2026 (strict)
- Paper submission: 23 March 2026 (strict)
Website: https://www.foisconference.org/cfp/

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The conference encourages submission of high quality, not previously published results on both theoretical issues and practical advancements.

Important dates

- Mandatory abstract submission: 16 March 2026 (strict)
- Paper submission: 23 March 2026 (strict)
- Rebuttal period: 6–13 May 2026
- Notifications: 27 May 2026
- Camera-ready submission: 17 June 2026
- Virtual conference: 9 September 2026
- Onsite conference: 21–25 September 2026

Submission types

FOIS 2026 seeks full-length high-quality papers on three tracks:

- Foundational track: for papers that address content-related ontological issues, their formal representation, and their relevance to some aspect of information systems.
- Application and Methods track: for papers that address novel systems, methods, and tools related to building, evaluating, or using ontologies, emphasizing the impact of ontology contents.
- Domain Ontology track: for papers that describe a novel ontology for a specific realm of interest, clarifying ontological choices against requirements and foundational theory, and showing ontology use.

Reviewing Process

Each paper will be reviewed by at least 3 members of the program committee and 1 member of the senior program committee, who will provide a meta-review. All reviews will be anonymous. Accepted papers will have the FAIRness of their related artifacts evaluated (if applicable). The FOIS proceedings will be published by IOS Press (Sage) as open access.

For further details, especially on submission instructions, evaluation criteria and requirements, the review process, and paper publication, see here: https://www.foisconference.org/cfp/

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Journal-First Papers

The FOIS 2026 journal-first track aims to showcase and discuss with the FOIS community recently published studies related and relevant to formal and applied ontology. The rationale of the journal-first track is to provide an opportunity to present and discuss already published results that have not yet been presented at a conference.

We invite submissions in forms of extended abstracts of journal papers that have been published or have been accepted for publication but have not been presented at a conference or workshop before.

Accepted proposals will be presented at FOIS 2026 with an accompanying (optional) poster session, either on-site or online, depending on the preferences of the author(s). For each accepted proposal, a short abstract will be published on the conference website along with a link to the original publication. Presentations can be either onsite or online. However, at least one author is required to register for the conference to present the research.

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Call for Journal-First Papers
- Paper submission: 3 June 2026
- Author notification: 15 July 2026
- Camera-ready submission: 31 July 2026
Website: https://www.foisconference.org/journalfirst/

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Individual submissions must be done using EasyChair, and include:

1) A cover page (single page) comprising:
- the original title of the journal article;
- authors;
- bibliographic references of the paper, e.g. DOI of the original publication or, alternatively, a link to the publication at the journal’s website;
-and a statement that this article is not an extension of an earlier ontology-focused conference or workshop paper.

2) A one-page abstract of the paper. The abstract should describe the contributions of the paper, discuss the relevance of the paper to applied/formal ontology, and explain the impacts of the results.

3) The full article is to be uploaded as supplementary material.

The materials must be submitted through the EasyChair conference system at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fois2026

Submissions (i.e. cover page + abstract) must follow the one-column CEUR-ART style formatting. The CEUR-ART Overleaf template can be found at: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/template-for-submissions-to-ceur-workshop-proceedings-ceur-ws-dot-org/wqyfdgftmcfw.

For further details, especially on eligibility criteria and requirements, visit https://www.foisconference.org/journalfirst/ or contact fois2026-journal@easychair.org.

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Demonstrations

The demonstrations track complements the FOIS 2026 main track by offering an interactive platform for authors to present and discuss their work. We invite demonstrations of tools and methods developed using ontologies, as well as those to create, maintain, integrate, publish, evaluate, and implement ontologies. We also invite demonstrations of novel ontology (anti)patterns and of challenges arising in the ontology engineering life cycle. The goal is to raise the visibility and foster understanding of the dynamic, integrative, and use-oriented aspects of applied ontology, its tools, and its uses.

Areas of interest include (non-exhaustively):
- Ontology-based tools, systems, architectures, methods, and languages.
- Ontology engineering methods and tools, including those aided by automated means (e.g., through Large Language Models).
- Ontology representation languages.
- Ontology patterns and anti-patterns.
- Positive, negative, or mixed results from the use of an ontology engineering method or tool in practice.
- Challenges encountered in the development or application of tools and methods that are not yet well addressed.

We also encourage the demonstration of software tools, patterns, methods, and languages reported in papers accepted at the main track. For example, a novel ontology engineering method proposed in a full-length paper (e.g., under the “Application and Methods track”) can be complemented by a demonstration on this track.

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Call for Demonstrations
Submissions due: 03 June 2026
Notification of acceptance: 15 July 2026
Camera-ready versions due: 31 July 2026
Website: https://www.foisconference.org/demos/

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Submissions should describe the demonstration subject, the process or action that will be demonstrated, the characteristics or results that will be in focus, and the significance of these for applied ontology.

Demonstration submissions may take either of two forms:

- Short papers (5-9 pages, including bibliography).
- Full papers (10-14 pages, including bibliography).
If the demonstration paper is complementary to another paper at FOIS, it must refer to that paper and describe the difference in content and value. Complementary submissions are encouraged; duplicative submissions are not.

Submissions must:

- Respect the aforementioned page limits.
- Be submitted non-anonymously in PDF.
- Comply with the 1-column CEUR-ART style, including the CEUR policy on the usage of generative AI.
- Supplementary results referenced in the paper must follow the FAIR principles in accordance with the main track instructions. Examples of such results are an ontology or other type of semantic artefact, a methodology, a software tool, a formalism, or a dataset.

Submit your paper via EasyChair at https://easychair.org/account/signin_timeout?l=130285166013096505.1772122575.08851e26. Please select the track “Demonstrations.”

As in previous editions, papers can be presented either in the virtual or on-site sessions of FOIS 2026. Authors must declare during submission their preferred presentation format (i.e., virtual or on-site). Acceptance will be either for on-site or virtual presentations, after which authors can no longer change the modality. Since the number of on-site and virtual presentations is limited, we encourage authors to be as flexible as possible to maximise their chance of paper acceptance.

For details on submission instructions, publications, and participation, please visit https://www.foisconference.org/demos/

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Ontology Showcase

A wide variety of ontologies across many domains are being developed in the Applied Ontology community. However, limited awareness of these efforts can lead to isolated “ontology silos”, reducing opportunities for synergy and collaboration. The Ontology Showcase at FOIS provides authors with a forum to present both ongoing ontology work – so that they can receive early feedback from the community – and more mature, published ontologies that can foster collaboration across projects. Thereby, this initiative promotes the sharing, reuse and refinement of high-quality ontologies.
The ontology showcase is a practical track aimed at stimulating the community to share their ontologies, make them more visible and get (early) feedback, even if their development is still an ongoing or early work that does not provide a mature scientific contribution suitable to be submitted (yet) to the main track. The ontology showcase provides authors with the opportunity to describe their ontology to be published as CEUR proceedings. Live demos that show the use of the accepted ontologies in practical settings are encouraged.

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Call for Ontology Showcase
Submission due: 03 June 2026
Notification of acceptance: 15 July 2026
Camera-ready version due: 31 July 2026
Website: https://www.foisconference.org/showcase/

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Two modalities can be submitted to ontology showcase:

- Unpublished ontologies: Authors may submit short (5-9 pages, including bibliography) or long papers (10-14 pages including bibliography) describing ontologies that have not been published (or accepted for publication) in a journal or the archival proceedings of a conference. Ontologies that have been substantially extended or evolved since a prior publication also qualify as long as the paper focuses and clearly describes the new aspects.
- Published work: Authors may submit extended abstracts (up to 2 pages plus bibliography) summarizing ontologies that have been published previously in archival proceedings or journals. The extended abstract must contain a link to the original publication and its title must start with “Abstract :”.

Both submission modalities should comply with submission guidelines described below. At a minimum, papers must contain a description of the ontology, show the technical quality of the ontology and how other existing ontologies/design patterns have been (or are planned to be) reused, clearly state the added value of the ontology compared to existing work and provide evidence of adoption by a community (academic, industrial) that is using it (or that potentially will benefit from it).

Submission guidelines
Submissions should provide an overview of the ontology addressing the following questions as much as possible:

- What is the domain represented by the ontology?
- What added value does the ontology provide to the intended domain or community?
- Who are the intended end users of the ontology (e.g., industrial or academic community, end users)?
- What methodology was adopted for developing the ontology?
- Are there other ontologies within the same domain? How do they compare to the ontology being showcased?
- What other ontologies are reused in the ontology being showcased?
- What are the requirements/use cases that drove the ontology development?
- How is the ontology populated (e.g., datasets reused)?
- How was the ontology evaluated?
- Does the ontology comply with the FAIR principles (see examples of FAIR ontologies)?
- What are the sustainability plans for the ontology (e.g., who are the maintainers)?
- Were there any notable modeling challenges that needed to be addressed during the ontology’s development?

Papers will be evaluated by the international program committee with respect to how well they address the questions and the overall quality of the ontology and its descriptions.

Submissions must:

- Respect the aforementioned page limits.
- Be submitted non-anonymously in PDF.
- Comply with the 1-column CEUR-ART style, https://ceurws.wordpress.com/2020/03/31/ceurws-publishes-ceurart-paper-style/.
- Comply with the FAIR guideline outlined here, https://www.foisconference.org/fair4fois/. Papers that are not FAIR enough according to these guidelines will be only conditionally accepted, pending the fulfillment of the FAIR requirements.
- Clearly indicate the desired mode of presentation (online or in-person). Acceptance will be either for the in-person presentation or for online presentation, at which time authors can no longer change the modality.

Submit your paper via EasyChair at at https://easychair.org/account/signin_timeout?l=130285166013096505.1772122575.08851e26. Please select the track “Ontology Showcase”.

Authors of accepted papers are – in addition to a presentation during the showcase session – also offered the opportunity to present a poster of their ontology during the conference. The poster (format to be defined) should contain a compact description of the ontology, mention other ontologies/patterns being reused, highlight its purpose and added value, explicitly mention by which users/community is the ontology being used, who is its maintainer and provide the link to its publication page.

For details on submission instructions and types, publications, format, and participation, please visit https://www.foisconference.org/showcase/

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Industrial Project Exhibitions

The FOIS 2026 Research and Industrial Project Exhibitions Track invites researchers and practitioners to present their planned, ongoing, or recently finished projects (e.g., Horizon Europe, ERC, national grants) involving in some form the area of Formal Ontology in Information Systems. The primary goal is to provide a platform for disseminating interim project results and receiving feedback on evolving research and innovation proposals. This event fosters collaboration by facilitating connections between potential partners, nurturing existing relationships, and encouraging discourse on innovative ideas. Participants gain insights into ongoing research developments and opportunities to network with potential collaborators.
We also welcome submissions from other tracks of FOIS 2026 to present their broader project context within the Project Exhibitions track, offering an opportunity to showcase how these submissions fit into the context of larger projects.
Projects should:
address important challenges in Formal Ontology or utilize Formal Ontology methods;
be either research or innovation projects;
be currently in the planning phase, scheduled to begin, ongoing or recently completed;
aim, within a specified timeframe and led by a team or consortium, to tackle a challenge set by an organization or funding entity.

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Call for Industrial Project Exhibitions
Submission deadline: 3 June 2026
Author notification: 15 July 2026
Camera-ready papers: 31 July 2026
Website: https://www.foisconference.org/projects/

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Submissions to this track should include:

- details of the project, including its name, duration, involved participants, partners, funding agency, and website.
- an outline of the project’s objectives, work breakdown, and anticipated results;
- an explanation how the project (or its work packages) aligns with the Formal Ontology in Information Systems community.
- an update on the project’s current status.

Submissions should:

- be at most 2 pages long (excluding references).
- comply with the 1-column CEUR-ART style, https://ceurws.wordpress.com/2020/03/31/ceurws-publishes-ceurart-paper-style/.
- be submitted non-anonymously in PDF format through EasyChair, at https://easychair.org/account/signin_timeout?l=4030509699352990404.1772123380.253c4151, by selecting the “Project Exhibitions” track.

Submissions will be selected by the track chairs on the basis of their relevance to the area of Formal Ontology in Information Systems.

For details on submission instructions, publications, and participation, please visit https://www.foisconference.org/projects/



FOIS 2026 Organization

General Chairs
- João Paulo A. Almeida, Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), Brazil
- Tiago Prince Sales, University of Twente, The Netherlands

Program Committee Chairs
- Sergio de Cesare, University of Westminster, UK
- Fernanda Baião, PUC-Rio, Brazil

JOWO Chairs
- Mara Abel, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil
- Mattia Fumagalli, Free University of Bolzen-Bolzano, Italy

Online Chair
- Maria Hedblom, Jönköping University, Sweden

Local Organizing Committee
- Monalessa Perini Barcellos, Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), Brazil
- Julio Cesar Nardi, Federal Institute of Espírito Santo (IFES) Colatina, Brazil
- Paulo Sérgio Santos Jr., Federal Institute of Espírito Santo (IFES) Serra, Brazil

Ontology Show Case Chairs
- Torsten Hahmann, University of Maine, USA
- César Bernabé, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

Demonstrations Chairs
- Bart Gajderowicz, Utah State University, USA
- Claudenir Morais Fonseca, University of Twente, Netherlands

FAIR Chair
- Luiz Olavo Bonino, University of Twente, The Netherlands

Industry Chair
- Jim Logan, Ontogenesis Solutions, LLC, USA

Early Career Symposium Chairs
- Renata Wassermann, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil
- Maria Luiza Campos, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil

Journal-First Chairs
- Greta Adamo, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
- Ludger Jansen, PTH Brixen College, Italy

Research Project Chairs
- Fumiaki Toyoshima, Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- Adrien Barton, CNRS, Toulouse, France

Tutorial Chairs
- Guendalina Righetti, University of Oslo, Norway
- Laure Vieu, CNRS, Toulouse, France

Publicity Chairs
- Giorgio A. Ubbiali, PTH Brixen College, Italy
- Vitor Souza, Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), Brazil

Proceedings Chair
- Sander van Leeuwen, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands

JOWO Proceedings Chair
- Cauã Roca Antunes, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil