Complex networks are nowadays pervasive in many fields of science and engineering, with applications that include distributed systems, transport networks, electronic circuits, power grids, biological systems, epidemic spreading, opinion diffusions over social media, and many others. In the dawn of network science, scientists mostly aimed at characterizing the relationship between structure and functions of networks, with very simple or no dynamical processes evolving on their fabric and focusing on a single spatial and/or temporal scale. Efforts aiming at modeling, analyzing, and controlling realistic dynamical processes on complex networks have called for more intricated modeling paradigms, where multiple spatial and temporal scales coexist and coevolve. These models, together with a plethora of data made easily available to the community, are shaping our present and future endeavors. Notably, the relationship within and between different spatial and temporal scales characterizing dynamical complex networks is still elusive and constitutes one of the major challenges in network science.

This satellite meeting will offer a broad overview of these challenges, showcasing groundbreaking results in modeling, analyzing, optimizing, and controlling complex networks accounting for different spatial and temporal scales. It will host nine prominent scientists engaged in theoretical and applicative studies. The invited talks include studies on biological networks and their emerging behaviors, multi-scale dynamics of complex information, evolutionary processes and noise-induced collective behaviors as well as recent results on coevolving stochastic networks, explosive phenomena in multi-layer networks and exploratory adaptation in heterogeneous networks.

The satellite is also opened to contributed talks on the topic, which will be selected through peer review. The format of the contributed presentations will be defined according to the number and scope of the submitted contributions, even though our preference would lean toward “fast” presentation modes (e.g., PechaKucha talks).