Call for Grand Challenges

The 2026 edition of the IEEE Visual Communications and Image Processing (VCIP) Conference will be held in Singapore during December 13–16, 2026.

The Organizing Committee of VCIP 2026 invites Grand Challenge (GC) proposals on emerging topics in visual communications and image processing.

GC Guidelines

Please see the following guidelines for this year’s Grand Challenge submissions:

1. GC organizers cannot participate as competitors in the GC they are organizing.
2. GC organizers should provide a dataset that is open for competition. This should include a training set (if needed) and a test set (and ground truth, if relevant), which may be made available depending on the specifics of the GC.
3. GC organizers are responsible for evaluating all submitted GC contribution packages. Each package corresponds to a GC solution and should include a document (maximum 5 pages, VCIP format) describing the solution, results, software, and related materials.
4. GC organizers should organize a GC session within the VCIP 2026 program, including presentations of selected solutions and ideally followed by a panel or open discussion. GC winners should be announced during these sessions.
5. Participants are encouraged to submit regular VCIP papers (up to 4 pages of content + 1 page for references) corresponding to their GC solutions. Accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings. Rejection of a paper does not exclude the corresponding solution from evaluation, as criteria may differ (e.g., novelty for papers versus performance for solutions).

Proposal Requirements

Prospective organizers should submit a Grand Challenge proposal document (maximum five pages) containing the following information:

• GC title
• Organizers’ contact details and short bios
• GC brief introduction
• Significance and relevance to visual communications and image processing
• Specification of files included in the contribution packages
• Evaluation criteria for GC solutions
• Guidelines and timeline for dataset release, submission, and evaluation
• Plan for soliciting participation
• Additional information (e.g., sponsors and awards, if any)

Proposals will be evaluated based on originality, ambition, feasibility, and the strength of the implementation plan.

Submission

Please submit Grand Challenge proposals in the prescribed format. Details on the submission method and submission link will be announced soon.