Hybrid Metaheuristics: Editorial to the special issue

Combinations of metaheuristic components with components from other metaheuristics or optimization strategies from AI and OR are called hybrid metaheuristics. The design and implementation of hybrid metaheuristics raises problems going beyond questions about the design of a single metaheuristic. Choice and tuning of parameters is for example rendered more difficult by the problem of how to achieve a proper interaction of different algorithm components. Interaction can take place at low-level, using functions from different metaheuristics, or at high-level, e.g., using a portfolio of metaheuristics for automated hybridization. This special issue of the Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Algorithms is devoted to this interdisciplinary topic and contains six papers covering a wide spectrum of subjects.