Conceptual Structures: Inspiration and Application

th The 14 International Conference on Conceptual Structures (ICCS 2006) was held in Aalborg, Denmark during July 16 - 21, 2006. Responding to the Call for Papers, we received 62 papers from 20 different countries, representing six different continents. This clearly indicates the international nature of the ICCS community as well as the widespread interest which was spawned by the previous conferences. By a thorough review process, 24 papers were selected to be included in this volume. In addition, six invited speakers made contributions which can be found in the first section of this volume. The theme of ICCS 2006--Conceptual Structures: Inspiration and Application-- points to a dual focus of interest that is also reflected in the constellation of papers. From the beginning of the planning of this conference, we focused on inspirational sources that have led to the current state of research in our community, by tracing important historical influences which daily effect work in representing knowledge and in handling representations of conceptual structures. At the same time, we also focused on ways in which these legacies are employed to further advance theory and practice in the field of knowledge representation and processing. With this volume, we believe that a valuable contribution to both aspects of this field is being made. We wish to express our appreciation to all the authors of submitted papers, to the members of the Editorial Board and the Program Committee for all their work and valuable comments.