Self organisation is all around us. We observe all kinds of self organising patterns in flora and fauna. Also many IT applications nowadays involve self organisation, for example, swarms of robots, computer clusters, artificial life applications, etcetera. Recent research in Artificial Intelligence looks at the analysis and design of collective intelligence within such groups of entities. Evolution, learning, social interactions and other adaptation mechanisms make such intelligence possible.

We are happy to welcome you at the 2009 edition of the DECOI school. This school follows on two previous editions in 2006 and 2007 that were highly successful in attracting many international researchers and students. The school takes places from 23-27 February 2009 at the Lorentz Center in Leiden (The Netherlands).