This article is published in the January 2020 issue.

Call for Proposals: Creating Visions for Computing Research


The mission of Computing Research Association’s (CRA) Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is to catalyze the computing research community and enable the pursuit of innovative, high-impact research. CCC conducts activities that strengthen the research community, articulate compelling research visions and align those visions with pressing national and global challenges. CCC communicates the importance of those visions to policymakers, government and industry stakeholders, the public, and the research community itself.

In accordance with the mission, CCC is issuing a new call for proposals for activities that will catalyze and enable innovative research at the frontiers of computing.

This guide shares further insight about the visioning process, from idea conception through program formation. It includes suggested activities, sample wording, and a timeline. Past examples of visioning activities can be found here.

From the solicitation:

A well-formulated proposal should do the following:

  • Describe the visioning topic area and its current state of development within the field,
  • Explain the proposed activities in detail (if more than one activity, be sure to demonstrate the differences between the activities, the rationale for more than one activity, and the mechanisms to coordinate across activities),
  • Connect the activity and the vision: how does the former support/foster the latter?
  • Justify why this vision and this activity are appropriate now,
  • Specify the intended outcomes of the activity, and
  • Describe how those outcomes can be used to advance the visioning topic area.

A complete proposal must also

  • Identify the organizing committee,
  • Include brief biographical sketches of the organizers,
  • Propose a representative set of potential invitees (be sure to include representation from industry, policy and funding organizations),
  • Provide a draft budget with justification, and
  • Articulate how the success of the workshop and its outcomes can be assessed.

If you have ideas or topics for visioning, please consider submitting a proposal. For CCC planning purposes, proposals with start dates prior to Fall 2020 should be submitted by April 15, 2020. Proposals should be no more than six pages in length. They should describe the existing or potential vision(s) and proposed activities in detail, including how the larger community will be engaged.

For more information, see the complete call for proposals. And if you have questions, please e-mail us or see the slides from the Visioning Activities Webinar.

We look forward to receiving your ideas!

Call for Proposals: Creating Visions for Computing Research