15th Mini-EURO Conference
Theme: "Managing Uncertainty in Decision Support Models (MUDSM 2004)"
Coimbra - Portugal
22-24 September 2004

Sponsoring institutions: EURO (The Association of European Operational
Research Societies), APDIO (Portuguese OR Society), Faculty of Economics
at the University of Coimbra, INESC Coimbra

Scope and objectives:
Mini EURO Conferences are conferences allowing specialists of a particular
promising OR theme of research to participate in a meeting where the
screening of papers can be more effective and participation in the debates
can be more lively than at larger meetings.

The 15th Mini EURO Conference is aimed at providing an open forum in which
researchers coming from different scientific disciplines and operational
research areas can discuss and share their experience regarding
methodological approaches to tackle, in an explicit manner, uncertainty
and imprecision stemming from distinct sources, which have influence on
obtaining robust conclusions in decision support models with application
to several areas. Particular attention will be paid to multicriteria
evaluation models in which distinct types of difficulties are associated
with achieving robust conclusions: the intrinsic incomplete nature of
models, the imprecision associated with input data, and the uncertainty
associated with the analytical representation of the structure of the
decision maker's preferences.

Contributions from decision theory, fuzzy sets, rough sets, risk analysis,
stochastic programming, sensitivity analysis, robustness analysis,
interval programming, inexact programming, etc. are expected both from
methodological and application perspectives, thus paving the way for a
cross-fertilization between distinct ways to incorporate uncertainty,
imprecision and risk in decision support models.

Organizing Committee:
Luís Cândido Dias (Chair), Carlos Henggeler Antunes, Maria João Alves, Ana
Rosa Borges.

International Program Committee:
Carlos H. Antunes (Chair, Portugal), Alexis Tsoukiàs (France), Andreas
Saltelli (Italy), Bernard Roy (France), Carlos Bana e Costa (Portugal),
Constantin Zopounidis (Greece), Danae Diakoulaki (Greece), David Rios-
Insua (Spain), Denis Bouyssou (France), Efraim Turban (HK), Jacinto
Gonzalez-Pachon (Spain), Jacques Teghem, (Belgium), Jean-Marc Martel
(Canada), Jean-Pierre Brans (Belgium), João Clímaco (Portugal), João Paulo
Costa (Portugal), José Figueira (Portugal), Kaisa Miettinen (Finland),
Luís C. Dias (Portugal), Manuel Matos (Portugal), Maria João Alves
(Portugal), Mashahiro Inuiguchi (Japan), Pascale Zaraté, (France),
Philippe Vincke (Belgium), Rudolph Vetschera (Austria), Raimo Hamalainen
(Finland), Richard Wendell (USA), Rita Almeida Ribeiro (Portugal), Roman
Slowinski (Poland), Ronald R. Yager (USA), Salvatore Grecco (Italy), Simon
French (UK), Theodor Stewart (South Africa), Tomas Gal (Germany), Valerie
Belton (UK)

Submissions:
Three kinds of submissions are welcome:
· Proposal for a session of three papers dedicated to a given topic. After
acceptance, the promoter will be responsible for his/her session and will
chair it.
· Proposal for a panel discussion on a given topic. After acceptance, the
promoter will be responsible for his/her session and will chair it.
· Free submission of short papers (4-6 pages). The accepted papers will be
published as conference proceedings.

The official language of the conference is English.

Publication:
In agreement with the Editors of the European Journal of Operational
Research and the Editor of Decision Support Systems, authors present at
MUDSM 2004 will be invited to submit full versions of their papers to be
published on a Special Issue of EJOR or a Special Issue of DSS on the
theme of the conference.

Venue:
The conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Economics, University of
Coimbra. Dating from 1290, the U. Coimbra is one of the oldest in Europe
and the oldest in Portugal. It now comprises eight faculties, including the
Faculty of Economics, which was established in 1972. Coimbra is located in
the centre region of Portugal, easily accessible by car, bus or train from
Lisbon (200 Km) or Oporto (130 Km) international airports.

Registration fee (in Euros):
Type of registration / Until June 23, 2004 / After June 23, 2004
Normal(1)            /       240           /        300
Student(2)           /       120           /        150
(1) Includes conference Proceedings and documentation, lunches, coffee
breaks, social program, and taxes (VAT).
(2) Includes all of the above, except the banquet comprised in the social
program. To qualify as a student, the delegate must present a student
card.  Support from EURO may be granted to seven delegates from Eastern
European countries (300-600euros each).

Important dates:
March 31, 2004: Submission of short papers (4-6 pages)
June 1, 2004: Notification of acceptance
June 23, 2004: Early registration deadline
June 30, 2004: Revised short paper due
July 25, 2004: Registration deadline
(to guarantee inclusion in the final program and proceedings volume)

Secretariat
MUDSM 2004
INESC Coimbra
Rua Antero de Quental, 199
3000-033 Coimbra, Portugal
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Web page
www.inescc.pt/mudsm2004