IEEE BigData

2026 IEEE International Conference on Big Data

Call for Big Data Cup Proposals

2026 IEEE Big Data Cup https://bigdataieee.org/BigData2026/index.html

We invite industrial, government, and academic organizations to submit proposals to organize a Data Challenge for the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (IEEE BigData 2026). Data Challenges are analytics and programming contests based on datasets released by the organizations sponsoring the competitions. These contests will run for several months, with winners announced in the IEEE BigData 2026 in December 14-17, 2026 at Phoenix, AZ

The IEEE Big Data conference series started in 2013 has established itself as the top tier research conference in Big Data.

  1. The IEEE Big Data 2024 (http://bigdataieee.org/BigData2024/, regular paper acceptance rate: 18.4%) was held at Washington DC, USA, Dec 15-18, 2024 with more than 1300 registered participants from 53 countries
  2. The IEEE Big Data 2023 (http://bigdataieee.org/BigData2023/, regular paper acceptance rate: 17.4%) was held at Sorrento, Italy, Dec 15-18, 2023 with close to 950 registered participants from 50 countries
  3. The first conference IEEE Big Data 2013 (http://bigdataieee.org/BigData2013/ regular paper acceptance rate: 17.0%) was held in Santa Clara, CA from Oct 6-9, 2013 with more than 400 registered participants from 40 countries.

Strong proposals will release interesting and novel datasets to the participants and propose tasks that are challenging, yet achievable within the expected timeline. To encourage broad participation in the challenge competition, tasks and data should be made publicly accessible where possible.

Topics of Interest:

  • Responsible AI and Data Ethics
  • Big Data Analytics for Humanitarian Crises
  • Data science for equality, inclusion and well-being challenges
  • Internet of Things Data Analytics
  • Food, Nutrition and Environment
  • Scientific Discovery
  • Cybersecurity, Cyber Intelligence and Defense
  • Transportation and autonomous driving
  • Blockchain Technology
  • Smart City and Community
  • Retail and e-commerce
  • Advanced manufacturing
  • Finance and Business Forecasting
  • Health and wellness
  • Mobility

The Challenges involve a released dataset and a well-defined problem with clear evaluation metrics. The challenges run on a data competition platform (e.g., Kaggle) that maintains a leaderboard for the participants. Final winners are selected based on their standing on the leaderboard, and a 6-page report describing their algorithms and results. There will be a workshop in the IEEE BigData 2026 conference in which the invited teams will be able to present their solution.

Tentative Competition Timeline:

  • Step 1 – Solicitation of big data problems/topics, May 1, 2026
  • Step 2 – Proposal evaluation and selection of topics/problems, May 15, 2026
  • Step 3 – Data Release, Platform setup and solicitation of challenge participants, June 1, 2026
  • Step 4 – Deadline for contest teams to submit letter of intent, June 25, 2026
  • Step 5 – Deadline for contest teams to submit final report and solutions, November 15, 2026
  • Step 6 – Announcement of winning teams, Nov 25, 2026

Data Challenge Proposal Format

Proposals should answer the following questions:

  • Do you require source code with submissions?
  • What prizes will be offered? Note that cash prizes will be shared between competitors and BigData, to defray the expenses of hosting demonstrations of the finalists' submissions at BigData.
  • What is the dataset to be released? If there are privacy concerns regarding the data, we advise that the organizers first seek clearance from the legal department of their organization regarding the dataset release.
  • Which sector does the proposed Data Challenge belong to?
  • Who are the organizers? Provide the names, affiliations, contact information, and brief bio of the organizers.

Challenge Specific Questions:

  • What competition infrastructure will be used?
  • What are the task and the evaluation metrics?

Our default hosting platform is Kaggle, which may impose fees to be borne by Challenge organizers. If you prefer to host it on your own infrastructure, specify the reasons and the resources you can commit to running the competition.

Deadline for proposal Submission: May 1, 2026.

Please submit the proposal here : https://wi-lab.com/cyberchair/2026/bigdata26/scripts/submit.php?subarea=ProC

2026 IEEE Big Data Cup Chairs