Blue Sky Ideas Track: Call for Papers

Co-Chair: Nitesh Chawla, University of Notre Dame
Co-Chair: Vagelis Papalexakis, University of California, Riverside

The KDD 2026 conference is excited to announce the introduction of the Blue Sky Ideas Track. The goal of this track is to invite members of the research community to present visionary position papers that can help inform or shape new directions in technical areas associated with KDD (broadly data science and artificial intelligence). These are not typical conference research papers; instead, they are expected to be bold, forward-looking papers that set a new direction for future research.

What Are We Looking For?

The Blue Sky Ideas papers should be aligned with the key topics of interest, as outlined in the KDD’26 RFP, namely: Foundations of Knowledge Discovery and Data Science; Modern AI and Big Data; Trustworthy and Responsible Data Science; Systems for Data Science and Scalable AI; and Data Science Applications. 

Aligned with the aforementioned topics, the Blue Sky Ideas papers should be: 

• Bold in Vision: Propose innovative concepts that challenge conventional thinking.
• Tackle Complex and Hard Problems: Address complex issues that are difficult to solve with existing methods.
• Present New Opportunities: Introduce novel algorithmic or methodological approaches.
• Challenge Existing Assumptions: Question the foundational principles of current methods or approaches.

We expect these ideas to foster new directions or innovations through the collective efforts of our community in subsequent KDD conferences and beyond. Ideally, the Blue Sky Ideas will become focal points for future research, inspiring the community to submit research papers in response. A special track dedicated to Blue Sky Ideas will be featured during the KDD 2026 Conference. 

Guidelines for Submission

Blue Sky Idea papers should not be incremental studies or preliminary results. Instead, they should present a bold vision, accompanied by the following elements:

1. How is the Blue Sky Idea related to the thematic topics of interest for KDD’26? 
2. What is the Big and Bold Idea?
3. Why is it a Blue Sky Idea? Why should the community consider it, and why now? Why is it not simply a regular paper submission? 
4. How does the paper push the frontier, challenge current assumptions, or offer a bold approach to a complex challenge?
5. If this idea is successful, what would success look like?

Submission Information

• Format: Papers should be no more than 5 pages, excluding references, and formatted according to the KDD 26 ACM Proceedings Template (two-column format). Papers should include all author information (single-blind).
• Submission System: Submit your paper through Openreview: https://openreview.net/group?id=KDD.org/2026/Blue_Sky_Ideas_Track. Please be advised that all co-authors should have an account in order to submit.   on.
• Review Process: Submissions will be reviewed by a specially convened program committee of experts in the field. There will be no rebuttal phase.
• Publication: Accepted Blue Sky Idea papers will be presented at the conference and included in the KDD 2026 proceedings.
• Author Limitation: An author can be on only one Blue Sky submission. If an author submits more than one submission, the submissions in violation will be desk rejected (based on time of submission).

Important Dates

• Paper Deadline: March 12, 2026
• Notification: May 16th, 2026
• Camera-ready: TBD

All deadlines are end-of-day in the Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone.

Join Us in Shaping the Future

We encourage you to take this opportunity to share your visionary ideas with the community. Your contribution can play a significant role in shaping the future directions of research in data science, AI, and knowledge discovery.

For any inquiries, please contact the Blue Sky Ideas Track Chairs, Nitesh Chawla and Vagelis Papalexakis at kdd26-bluesky@acm.org.