Guest Editorial to the Feature Cluster “New Trends in Applied Combinatorial Optimization” (EURO/ALIO 2018)

Applied Combinatorial Optimization has always received large interest in the scientific community. Thanks to the development of new solution methods and innovative techniques, hard real-world problems can now be tackled more effectively, and new challenges arise, such as considering uncertain conditions, combining hard problems together, solving problems in real-time. Given the strong scientific interest on this topic, the Joint EURO/ALIO International Conference 2018 focused on Applied Combinatorial Optimization. This conference was jointly promoted by the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO) and the Association of Latin–Iberoamerican Operational Research Societies (ALIO), both within the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS). The main purpose of this event was to bring together European and Latin American researchers and to stimulate activities and discussions about methods and applications in the field of Combinatorial Optimization. The Joint EURO/ALIO International Conference 2018 was held in Bologna, Italy, between June 25 and 27, 2018. The conference had about 250 registered participants from all over the world, who delivered talks on the most advanced methodologies for Applied Combinatorial Optimization problems. This Feature Cluster collects high-quality contributions, authored by participants to the conference or by researchers in the large scientific community of Combinatorial Optimization, which propose effective formulations and algorithms that allow solving relevant problems.