The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) invites proposals for visioning activities that will catalyze and enable innovative research at the frontiers of computing. Successful activities will articulate new research visions, galvanize community interest, mobilize support from the computing research community, government leaders, and funding agencies, and encourage broader segments of society to participate in computing research and education. Past examples can be found here. A best practices guide can be found here.  

The majority of visioning activities have been in-person workshops, but this should not be considered a hard-and-fast limitation (i.e. think also of roundtables, online meetings, etc.). Given the current uncertainty of widespread vaccination rates and the timing of a return to normalcy, for the near-term future we encourage flexibility in planning for live participation, virtual, or a mix of the two. Activity organizers are expected to bring together a diverse group of scientists and practitioners who can inform the area of interest, and to formulate a program that encourages new ideas, innovative thinking, and broad discussion. Workshops can be of varying sizes, typically ranging from 20 to 100 participants (though we have found that 30-50 is typically the ideal size). It is important that the participants cover a broad spectrum to ensure full coverage of the area, both in terms of content area representation, employment setting (academia, industry, research labs, and policy and funding organizations) and participants (seniority, gender, race).

Activities are required to have a tangible output – for example, a whitepaper (or set of whitepapers) or workshop report and a briefing slide deck. Workshop outcomes should be targeted to multiple audiences (the research community, science policy groups or funding agencies, the general public), and the deliverables should be tailored for easy dissemination. CCC will help to support both workshop organization and the subsequent generation and communication of the output.

The CCC can also support smaller gatherings, online meetings, or co-locating workshops at existing conferences as long as the plan includes bringing new people and perspectives into the proposed activity.

The CCC encourages creative ideas from all segments of the computing research community on topics ranging from the formulation of new research areas and technologies, to the use of new or existing research ideas and technologies to address important scientific or societal challenges.

PREPARING A PROPOSAL

Proposed activities can take many forms. A small group of people might have an idea and want to engage a larger, more established community to create a vision for a new research agenda that broadens the scope of the topic and creates community interest in it. A group of researchers may wish to re-energize a community by organizing a series of workshops to create a roadmap for the field. An interdisciplinary group may need to bring multiple communities together to catalyze a new interdisciplinary research area. In all cases, the proposing group is expected to have the research expertise, visibility, and leadership skills necessary to make the proposed effort a success. Please see the best practices guide. 

As a first step before starting work on a full proposal, we encourage submission of a short letter of intent, submitted to cccrfp@cra.org (no more than one page in length), that briefly addresses the key points listed below. CCC will provide initial feedback for use in helping you to prepare a full proposal as per the guidelines.

The length of the full project proposal should be commensurate with the scope of the proposed activities, but not longer than six (6) pages. Note that we seek activities that create visions for broad research agendas, not proposals whose primary purpose is to secure future funding for the participants.

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 important and 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 activity and its outcomes can be assessed.

Funded activities are expected to last from six months to two years, depending on the scope of the activity. Requested support can range from funding a roundtable discussion to help ideas germinate to a series of workshops over a number of years. Budgets can range in size from $10,000 to as much as $200,000, depending on the size and scope of effort that will be supported. Keep in mind that larger efforts (multiple workshops, higher budgets, etc.) can become too broad, making it difficult to bring the final products together. The Organizers are expected to lead the effort on behalf of the community, so the CCC will not cover salary support for the Organizers. Exceptions to these guidelines need to be very well justified. Budget questions should be sent to the email address below.

CCC/CRA STAFF SUPPORT

CCC/CRA staff supports workshops so that workshop organizers can use their talents most  effectively and function more like a technical program chair than a general chair. Staff handle logistics like obtaining venue, inviting participants, arranging hotel rooms, implementing meeting logistics (rooms, A/V, and meals), and handling travel reimbursements. Organizers—in consultation with CCC—determine meeting topics and goals, prepare list of invitees, arrange workshop schedule including choosing any speakers, run the workshop, and prepare follow-up (talks and report) to enhance the workshop’s impact.

REVIEW PROCESS AND REVIEW CRITERIA

Each proposal will be reviewed based on its potential to engage a segment of the research community, policy, and funding agencies around a compelling vision and need. The CCC Council will review the proposal and provide comments in a timely manner (typically within 6-8 weeks).

Proposals may be submitted by email anytime to  cccrfp@cra.org as an attachment in PDF or Word. For CCC planning purposes, proposals with start dates prior to Fall 2021 should be submitted by May 15, 2021.

Questions about this RFP should also be sent to cccrfp@cra.org.

A copy of this RFP and additional information, including a “best practices for visioning” document, can be found here. 

FUTURE SOLICITATIONS

The CCC expects to re-issue this solicitation periodically.