The EURO Mini Conference XXVIII dedicated to Variable Neighborhood Search (EUROmC-XVIII-VNS) will be held in Herceg Novi (Montenegro) October 4-7, 2012. The EURO Mini Conferences (EUROmC) constitute one of the instruments provided by EURO (the Association of European Operational Research societies) to promote the research in its field of interest. Each EUROmC is an specialized conference focusing a particular promising OR theme of research. These events are organized to allow specialists and practitioners of the selected topic of research to effectively screen papers participate in lively debates.

VNS is a metaheuristic based on systematic changes in the neighborhood structure within a search, for solving optimization problems and related tasks. The main goal of the EUROmC-XVIII-VNS is to provide a stimulating environment in which researchers coming from various scientific fields can share and discuss their knowledge, expertise and ideas related to the VNS Metaheuristic and its applications.