(Apologies for cross-posting) Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce that the submission deadline for the first international workshop *“Wanting What is Needed: From Homeostatic Control to Adaptive Behavior”*has been extended to *August 12, 2026*. The workshop will be held on October 19 in Berlin, Germany, as part of The 18th International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB 2026). Workshop website:https://wwin-workshop.github.io/sab2026 <https://wwin-workshop.github.io/sab2026>Keywords (including but not limited to): internal states, homeostasis, allostasis, reinforcement learning, decision making, robotics, adaptive behavior ====================================== Aims of the workshop ====================================== Classical reinforcement learning and cognitive models often begin with externally specified rewards. Biological organisms, by contrast, are autonomous learning agents whose behavior is constrained by the need to sustain their own viability. This workshop asks how internal physiological regulation can ground decision-making, value formation, and motivated behavior. We aim to foster a shared interdisciplinary conversation across machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, neuroscience, biology, physiology, ethology, and control theory. The goal is to clarify how homeostatic and allostatic regulation can contribute to adaptive behavior in both biological organisms and artificial agents. ====================================== Invited speakers ====================================== * Lilian A. Weber (Osnabrück University) * Lola Cañamero (CY Cergy Paris University) * Antonio Damasio (University of Southern California, online) ====================================== Extended abstracts for lightning talks and posters ====================================== * Extended abstracts of up to 3 pages (main text) * References, appendices, and acknowledgements are not included in this limit * Springer LNCS style (template available on the workshop website) ====================================== Important dates ====================================== * Extended Abstract Submission Deadline: August 12, 2026 * Notification of Acceptance: August 19, 2026 * Workshop Date: October 19, 2026 (afternoon) We welcome contributions from researchers working across the biological and artificial sciences and look forward to receiving your submissions. Best regards, Mehdi Khamassi CNRS / Sorbonne Université On behalf of the organizing committee: Naoto Yoshida — Kyoto University Ismael Freire — Sorbonne Université Boris Gutkin — École Normale Supérieure Henning Sprekeler — Technical University of Berlin Louis L’Haridon — ENSEA / CNRS Lola Cañamero — CY Cergy Paris University Mehdi Khamassi — CNRS / Sorbonne Université -- Mehdi Khamassi, PhD, HDR Research director (DR2), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Sorbonne Université ISIR - BC 173, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France phone: +33 6 50 76 44 92 email:mehdi.khamassi@sorbonne-universite.fr https://pages2.isir.upmc.fr/mkhamassi/ Co-director of the master's program in cognitive science (https://cog-sup.fr) Sorbonne Université / Université Paris Cité Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems National Technical University of Athens, Greece https://robotics.ntua.gr/people/