Surveys and essays towards research perspectives on complex systems

This editorial is dedicated to presenting the papers published in a special issue focused on modeling, qualitative analysis and simulation of the collective dynamics of systems in engineering and life sciences. All papers have a minor or major reference to living, i.e. complex systems, and a critical analysis of the overall content of the issue is proposed, leading to a forward look at research perspectives. This paper first defines the goals of the issue. Then, a brief description of the scientific contribution of the papers published in this issue is given. Finally, a look into the future is proposed.