During the last 20 years the Portuguese association of automatic control, Associação Portuguesa de Controlo Automático, with the sponsorship of IFAC have established the CONTROLO conference as a reference international forum where an effective exchange of knowledge and experience amongst researchers active in various theoretical and applied areas of systems and control can take place, always including considerable space for promoting new technical applications and developments, real-world challenges and success stories. In this 11^th edition the CONTROLO conference evolved by introducing two strategic partnerships with Spanish and Brazilian associations in automatic control, Comité Español de Automática and Sociedade Brasileira de Automatica, respectively.