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id="docs-internal-guid-41e800f6-7fff-8ed7-d597-eed373b03d15">***Apologies
for cross-posting ***</p>
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style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">-------------------------------------------</span></p>
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style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">CLEF 2026</span></p>
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style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Conference and Labs of the Evaluation Forum</span></p>
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style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Jena, Germany, September 21-24, 2026</span></p>
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style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><a
href="http://clef2026.clef-initiative.eu"
style="text-decoration:none;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#1155cc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;-webkit-text-decoration-skip:none;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">https://clef2026.clef-initiative.eu/</span></a></p>
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style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">-------------------------------------------</span></p>
<h1 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:24pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"><span
style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Call for Lab Proposals</span></h1>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span
style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Background</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><a
href="http://www.clef-initiative.eu/"
style="text-decoration:none;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#1155cc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;-webkit-text-decoration-skip:none;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">The CLEF Initiative</span></a><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> is a self-organised body whose main mission is to promote research, innovation, and development of information access systems with an emphasis on multilingual information in different modalities - including text and multimedia - with various levels of structure. CLEF promotes research and development by providing an infrastructure for:</span></p>
<ol style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Independent evaluation of information access systems</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Investigation of the use of unstructured, semi-structured, highly-structured, and semantically enriched data in information access</span></p></li>
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style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Creation of reusable test collections for benchmarking</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Exploration of new evaluation methodologies and innovative ways of using experimental data</span></p></li>
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style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Discussion of results, comparison of approaches, exchange of ideas, and transfer of knowledge</span></p></li>
</ol>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span
style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Scope of CLEF Labs</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">We invite submission of proposals for two types of labs:</span></p>
<ol style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Campaign-style" Evaluation Labs for specific information access problems (during the twelve months period preceding the conference), similar in nature to the traditional CLEF campaign "tracks". Topics covered by campaign-style labs can be inspired by any information access-related domain or task.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Labs that follow a more classical "workshop" pattern, exploring evaluation methodology, metrics, processes, etc. in information access and closely related fields, such as natural language processing, machine translation, and human-computer interaction.</span></p></li>
</ol>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">We highly recommend organisers new to the CLEF format of shared task evaluation campaigns to first consider organising a lab workshop to discuss the format of their proposed task, the problem space and practicalities of the shared task. The CLEF 2026 programme will reserve about half of the conference schedule for lab sessions.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">During the conference, the lab organisers will present their overall results in overview presentations during the plenary scientific paper sessions to give non-participants insights into where the research frontiers are moving. Lab organisers are expected to organise separate sessions for their lab with ample time for general discussion and engagement with all participants - not just those presenting campaign results and papers. Organisers should plan time in their sessions for activities such as panels, demos, poster sessions, etc. as appropriate. CLEF is always interested in receiving and facilitating innovative lab proposals.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Potential task proposers unsure of the suitability of their task proposal or its format for inclusion at CLEF are encouraged to contact the CLEF 2026 Lab Organizing Committee Chairs to discuss its suitability or design at an early stage.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span
style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Proposal Submission</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Lab proposals must provide sufficient information to judge the relevance, timeliness, scientific quality, benefits for the research community, and the competence of the proposers to coordinate the lab. Each lab proposal should identify one or more organisers as responsible for ensuring the timely execution of the lab. Proposals should be </span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">3 to 4 pages</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> long and should provide the following information:</span></p>
<ol style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Title of the proposed lab.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">A brief description of the lab topic and goals, its relevance to CLEF and the significance for the field.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">A brief and clear statement on usage scenarios and domain to which the activity is intended to contribute, including the evaluation setup and metrics.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Details on the lab organiser(s), including identifying the task chair(s) responsible for ensuring the running of the task. This should include details of any previous involvement in organising or participating in evaluation tasks at CLEF or similar campaigns.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">The planned format of the lab, i.e., campaign-style (“track”) or workshop.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Is the lab a continuation of an activity from previous year(s) or a new activity?</span></p></li>
<ol
style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="2"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">For activities continued from previous year(s): Statistics from previous years (number of participants/runs for each task), a clear statement on why another edition is needed, an explicit listing of the changes proposed, and a discussion of lessons to be learned or insights to be made.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="2"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">For new activities: A statement on why a new evaluation campaign is needed and how the community would benefit from the activity.</span></p></li>
</ol>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Details of the expected target audience, i.e., who do you expect to participate in the task(s), and how do you propose to reach them.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Brief details of tasks to be carried out in the lab. The proposal should clearly motivate the need for each of the proposed tasks and provide evidence of its capability of attracting enough participation. The dataset which will be adopted by the Lab needs to be described and motivated in the perspective of the goals of the Labs; also indications on how the dataset will be shared are useful. It is fine for a lab to have a single task, but labs often contain multiple closely related tasks, needing a strong motivation for more than 3 tasks, to avoid useless fragmentation.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Expected length of the lab session at the conference: half-day, one day, two days. This should include high-level details of planned structure of the session, e.g. participant presentations, invited speaker(s), panels, etc., to justify the requested session length.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Arrangements for the organisation of the lab campaign: who will be responsible for activities within the task; how will data be acquired or created, what tools or methods will be used, e.g., how will necessary queries be created or relevance assessment carried out; any other information which is relevant to the conduct of your lab.</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">If the lab proposes to set up a steering committee to oversee and advise its activities, include names, addresses, and homepage links of people you propose to be involved.</span></p></li>
</ol>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Lab proposals must be submitted via EasyChair. The link will be distributed, once EasyChair is set up.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span
style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Review Process</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Each proposal </span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">submitted by 14 July 2025</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> will be reviewed by the CLEF 2026 Lab Organising Committee. The acceptance decision will be sent by email to the responsible organiser by 4 Aug 2025. The final length of the lab session at the conference will be determined based on the overall organisation of the conference and the number of participant submissions received by a lab.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span
style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Advertising Labs at CLEF 2025 and ECIR 2026</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Organisers of accepted labs are expected to advertise their labs at both CLEF 2025 (September 9-12, 2025, Madrid, Spain) and ECIR 2026 (March 29 - April 2, 2026, Delft, Netherlands). </span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">So, at least one lab representative should attend these events.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Advertising at CLEF 2025 will consist of displaying a poster describing the new lab and advertising/announcing it during the closing session.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Advertising at ECIR 2026 will consist of submitting a lab description (</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">abstract submission deadline TBA by ECIR</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">) to be included in ECIR 2026 proceedings and advertising the lab in a booster session during ECIR 2026.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span
style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Lab Proposals from Newcomers</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">If you have not organised a lab before, do not panic! The CLEF 2026 Lab Organising Committee Lab is willing to mentor you by offering help, guidance, and feedback on the writing of your draft lab proposal.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">If you are a newcomer interested in receiving guidance, please send an e-mail with the following tag in the subject “[Mentorship CLEF 2026 Lab Proposals]” to Sean.MacAvaney at glasgow.ac.uk and julia.struss at fh-potsdam.de</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">We also encourage newcomers to refer to</span><a
href="https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004150"
style="text-decoration:none;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> </span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#1155cc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;-webkit-text-decoration-skip:none;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Friedberg et al. (2015)</span></a><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> for initial guidance on preparing their proposal:</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Friedberg I, Wass MN, Mooney SD, Radivojac P. Ten simple rules for a community computational challenge. PLoS Comput Biol. 2015 Apr 23;11(4):e1004150.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span
style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Important Dates</span></h2>
<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">14 July 2025:</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Hard deadline to submit proposal to Easychair</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">4 August 2025:</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Notification of lab acceptance</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">9-12 September 2025:</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Advertising Accepted Labs at CLEF 2025, Madrid, Spain</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">October 2025 (TBA by ECIR):</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Submission of short lab description for ECIR 2026</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">April 2026:</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Advertising labs at ECIR 2026, Delft, Netherlands</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">April-May:</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Lab evaluation cycle</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">May-June:</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Review process of participant papers</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">June 2026:</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Review of the condensed labs overviews</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">July 2026:</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> CEUR-WS Working Notes Preview for Checking by Authors and Lab Organisers</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">21-24 September, 2026:</span><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Labs at CLEF 2026</span></p></li>
</ul>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span
style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">CLEF 2026 Lab Chairs</span></h2>
<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:12pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Julia Maria Struß, Fachhochschule Potsdam University of Applied Sciences</span></p></li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;"
aria-level="1"><p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt;"
role="presentation"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Sean MacAvaney, University of Glasgow</span></p></li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
___________________________
Prof. Dr. Julia Maria Struß
Fachhochschule Potsdam
University of Applied Sciences
Fachbereich Informationswissenschaften
Kiepenheuerallee 5
14469 Potsdam
Telefon: +49 331 580 4532
Zoom: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://fh-potsdam.zoom-x.de/my/juliamstruss">https://fh-potsdam.zoom-x.de/my/juliamstruss</a></pre>
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