The coordination and cooperation phenomena are widespread in nature and society, from bird flocks and fish swarms to human hunting groups, collaboration on the internet, and collective robotics. In principle, these biological, social, and engineering systems can be described by complex adaptive systems composed of multiple agents with mutual interactions. Fundamental aspects in complex adaptive systems including how to understand the coordination and cooperation phenomena and how to use the theoretical knowledge beyond these phenomena for potential applications have received considerable attention in various disciplines, such as mathematics, physics, biology, computer science, and social sciences. During the past decade, plenty of studies have been carried out in the literature to address the coordination and cooperation problems in complex adaptive systems, and have continued to grow.

The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a timely discussion for researchers on the hotspots and challenges of the study on coordination and cooperation in theoretical models and applied systems. Thereby, we welcome authors to submit original research and review articles to this Research Topic. We are particularly interested in articles that identify unifying mechanisms characterizing the essence of the coordination and cooperation phenomena and use the proposed mechanisms for potential applications in collective robotics, enterprise collaboration, governance of common resources, service composition, supply chain, and so on. Potential topics to be covered include, but are not limited to:
• Consensus and synchronization
• Evolution of cooperation
• Evolutionary game theory
• Lab and field experiments on games
• Leadership and followership
• Dynamics of opinion and reputation
• Social learning
• Collective decision-making
• Complex adaptive systems
• Applications in collective robotics, enterprise collaboration, governance of common resources, service composition, supply chain, and so on.

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.