We invite proposals for Community Contributed Themes (CCT) that address emerging interdisciplinary topics. Selected CCT proposals will be added to the General and Special Themes as options for abstract/paper submission. Depending on the number of submissions under selected CCT proposals, multiple sessions may be formed for the topic and organized as either oral or poster session(s).

Proposal Guidelines

To improve efficiency and reduce technical program fragmentation, CCT proposals should consider the following guidelines:

• Proposals should complement existing General and Special Themes with a topic of community interest
• Organizers should solicit a minimum of five expected submissions based on community engagement
• Organizers should be willing to commit to becoming part of the IGARSS Technical Program Committee as Session Organizers and attend IGARSS 2026 in person as Chair/Co-Chair of resulting session(s)
• Organizers should expect possible coordination with similar proposals – the Technical Program CoChairs will merge overlapping topics
• Proposals should include organizers from different organizations to broaden potential submission pool
• CCT proposals are encouraged from a senior researcher paired with an early career researcher as a mentoring opportunity
• All submissions to accepted CCT’s will be subject to the same peer review process as all IGARSS submissions

Proposal Content

• Organizers: Chair and Co-Chair with affiliations, contact information, and brief summary of expertise and conference organization experience
• Session Overview: Title, scope, importance, and rationale for complementing General and Special themes
• Related General or Special Theme: most closely related theme (see list here)
• Related Technical Committee: GRSS Technical Committee, if being proposed under the auspices of a specific Technical Committee
• Potential Contributions: list of 5 potential submissions including lead author, organization, and tentative title or topic
• Session Format Preference: Oral or Poster
• Keywords: Up to 5 terms

Selection Criteria

• Priority given to: Cross-disciplinary topics, emerging technologies, underrepresented research areas;
• Automatic rejection: Narrow topics; duplication with General/Special Themes
• Consolidation policy: Similar proposals will be merged; TP Co-chairs will work with proposers to consolidate
• CCT may be assigned as oral or poster

The CCT proposers will be informed of the selection outcome by Monday, 3 November 2025.

Questions regarding Community-Contributed Themes may be directed to cct@2026.ieeeigarss.org.