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The 9th International Conference on Belief Functions (BELIEF 2026)
https://www.bfasociety.org/Belief2026
Dates: October 19–21, 2026
Location: Nanjing, China
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The theory of belief functions, also referred to as evidence theory or Dempster-Shafer theory, is a well-established mathematical framework for reasoning and decision-making under uncertainty, with applications to machine learning, statistical inference, information fusion, knowledge representation, risk analysis, and other fields. It can be viewed as an extension of probability theory and has well-understood connections with related frameworks such as random sets and imprecise probabilities. Recently, generalised evidence theory, based on random fuzzy sets, has been proposed as a unifying framework encompassing both Dempster-Shafer theory and possibility theory.
The biennial BELIEF conferences, sponsored by the Belief Functions and Applications Society, are dedicated to the confrontation of ideas, the reporting of recent achievements, and the presentation of a wide range of applications of this theory. Previous editions of this conference series were held in Brest, France (2010); Compiègne, France (2012); Oxford, UK (2014); Prague, Czech Republic (2016); Compiègne, France (2018); Shanghai, China (2021); Paris, France (2022); and Belfast, UK (2024).
To support cross-fertilisation among researchers working in different subfields of AI and related disciplines, tutorials and special sessions will be proposed, with emphasis on the links between machine learning, statistical inference, and uncertain reasoning, including topics such as quantification of prediction uncertainty, fusion rules for ensemble learning, belief propagation in deep neural networks, and links with explainable and symbolic AI. Submissions of papers combining several of these topics, or more generally at the crossroads of belief functions and other AI methods or uncertainty theories, along with relevant applications, are welcome.
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Attendance
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Both on-site and online participation and paper presentation will be possible.
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Proceedings
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The BELIEF 2026 proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) series and indexed by ISI Web of Science, EI Engineering Index, ACM Digital Library, dblp, Google Scholar, IO-Port, MathSciNet, Scopus, and Zentralblatt MATH.
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IJAR special issue
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Authors of selected papers from the BELIEF 2026 conference will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers for possible inclusion in a special issue of the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning.
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BELIEF 2026 conference co-chairs
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Prof. Zhigang Su (zhigangsu@seu.edu.cn), Southeast University, China
Prof. Thierry Denoeux (tdenoeux@utc.fr), Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France
More information: https://www.bfasociety.org/Belief2026