Call for Proposals

Special Sessions, Tutorials, Workshops, and Challenges

  • Duration: Approximately 1.5 hours

    ISBI seeks proposals for special sessions which should concentrate on critical and emerging topics in biomedical imaging. We expect these sessions to provide attendees with a broad overview of research work being done on a given topic. Additionally, the introduction of topics not traditionally represented at ISBI will allow us to broaden the ISBI community.

    We are particularly interested in topics that:

    • Give an overview on a focused topic of current interest to the ISBI community or sessions aiming to enhance collaborations between industry and academia.
    • Represent areas of wide interest to the biomedical imaging community but coming from communities that do not traditionally attend ISBI (eg: pharmaceutical industry, medical doctors, biologists, instrument manufacturers).
    • Reflect increased activity in the community, such as specific focused topics related to AI in medicine. A list of suggested methodological and modalities keywords can be found below:

    Suggested methodological keywords for this year: image registration progresses and state of the art, use and future of novel generative imaging models, novel image spatial/spectral sampling strategies during acquisition or processing, novel super-resolution imaging, large image cohorts harmonization, robust radiomics, domain transfer strategies, multi-modal data integration (multi-images, multi-omics), quality control of images with dedicated metrics toward standards, rational and limitations of graph-based modeling of spatial image-based information, unsupervised learning for “visual” phenotyping, language models for image-based decision support system, contributions and benefits vs limitations from open challenges and open cohorts, etc.

    Suggested modalities keywords for this year:
    Biological: novel protocols and sequences in microscopy, molecular markers for tumor micro-environment characterisation, image-based spatial transcriptomics, imaging cellular/molecular dynamics, multimodal/multiscale imaging, novel optics technologies, novel histo-patho stains.
    Medical: novel protocols and sequences in MRI, CT, US, PET/SPECT, OCT, photoacoustic imaging, bioluminescence, etc. translation from pre-clinical to clinical imaging, integration between tissue and in-vivo imaging, integration between pre-surgery and surgical imaging, integration between imaging and rehabilitation, etc.

    FORMAT OF SESSIONS: Each session is expected to last 1.5 hours and have between 4 and 5 invited speakers (each exploring different facets of the chosen topic). Presentations will be oral, in person, and only by invitation from the session organizer(s).
    *Invited speakers are required to cover their own registration to the ISBI conference. Session organizers are also encouraged to seek outside funding to provide support for speakers.
    Although not mandatory, invited contributors are encouraged to either submit a 4-page paper for inclusion in the proceedings, or a 1-page abstract that summarizes the content of the talk (which will not be included in the proceedings). These paper/abstract submissions follow the same deadlines and procedures as in the call for contributed papers. In line with IEEE standards, the 4-page papers will undergo peer review. The review process will use the same system as the main conference and will run parallel to the main review process, while managed by the session organizer(s).
    **We encourage diversity in proposed topics and imaging domains, but also organisers’ and presenters’ profiles, and targeted audience.

    PROPOSAL SUBMISSION: The proposal should include the following information:

    • Title of the session
    • Brief description of the proposed topic, including justification of its relevance to ISBI
    • Short CV (max. 1⁄2 page) per session proposer(s) indicating previous presentation or attendance at ISBI
    • Expected audience (number of expected attendees, level of expertise/familiarity with the topic required from the audience)
    • Tentative list of speakers. For each potential speaker include:
      • Name, affiliation, employment title, URL to lab
      • Tentative title of talk
      • Tentative abstract of talk (max. 300 words)
      • Short CV (max. 1⁄2 page)
      • Intention of the speaker to submit a 4-page contributed paper or a 1-page abstract

    SUBMISSION:

    If you are interested, please submit a proposal to: https://edas.info/N32831

    Proposals must be submitted via email as a single PDF file. The subject should state “ISBI 2025 Special Session Proposal”.

    DEADLINE: Sept 15, 2024

  • Duration: 2 – 3 hours with a break in the middle

    We welcome proposals for tutorials, which will provide educational material for all career levels including students, early career scientists, professionals seeking continued education, and established researchers. Tutorials should be organized by expert researchers and scientists. Gender balance and diversity in race, geographical location, institution, and seniority are highly desired in the tutorial organization team. Tutorials should focus on a specific topic relevant to the ISBI community, e.g., methodology/algorithm, clinical application, emerging technology, or software tool. Tutorials covering aspects of open science, reproducible research, and soft skills development are also welcome.

    Tutorials are expected to be self-contained, i.e., some part of the tutorial may need to be spent on covering necessary background information. Tutorials should not focus exclusively on the results or tools of the organizers or their organizations and should be reflective of the research within the wider biomedical imaging community.

    Tutorials format

    The tutorial format may combine lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on sessions. Each tutorial will last 2-3 hours with a break in the middle.

    How to propose a tutorial

    Proposals should be no more than four (4) pages (excluding biosketches) in 12-point font submitted as a single PDF file. Tutorial proposals should contain:

    • Title, topic overview and expected learning outcomes.
    • Relevance to ISBI community. Emerging topics will be favorably considered if the link with the ISBI community is clearly established.
    • Content details: Provide a detailed outline of the topics to be presented.
    • Format: How will you present the educational material (lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on sessions)? What software or programming languages might be involved?
    • Target audience: From which areas do you expect potential participants to come? What prior knowledge or skills, if any, do you expect from the audience?
    • Description of the course packs (including slides and other educational material) that will be distributed to the audience in hardcopy and/or electronic format. All such material must be free from copyright issues and should be submitted in advance to the Tutorials Chairs (see Important dates below).
    • Expertise of organizers: Please provide names, affiliations, email addresses, and short biosketches (covering expertise related to the topic of the tutorial) for each organizer. If there are multiple organizers, please describe how the time will be divided between them.

    All tutorial proposals  are accepted only via the following link:
    https://edas.info/N32831

    Additional note

    Tutorial organizers are expected to cover expenses with external funding. ISBI 2025 will not cover travel arrangements, registration fees and faculty compensation for the tutorial organizers.

    Deadline: October 31, 2024

  • Duration: Up to 2-hour events

    The organizing committee of ISBI 2025 invites proposals for Satellite Workshops, with the goals of enriching the conference program, attracting a wider audience, and nurturing the research and innovation ecosystem.

    The ISBI Satellite Workshops will be up to 2-hr events and will take place during the conference, at the conference venue. Their main emphasis will lie on clearly focused and emerging topics that are not specifically covered in the main conference and enable:

    1. the cross-fertilization between international initiatives and infrastructures
    2. the presentation of (EU or International) research project activities and results
    3. the discussions on emerging R&I topics and the synergies with industry
    4. the synergies among IEEE societies

    The specific organizational structure of workshops are up to the organizers, and may include a mix of invited presentations, keynotes, panels, demos and posters, encouraging the participation of attendees in active discussions.

    Proposal Submission
    Satellite Workshop proposals should be submitted through this link;
    TBA

    Each workshop proposal submission should be a single PDF file including all the necessary information, as outlined below:

    1. Full title and – if available – its acronym.
    2. Organizer name(s), affiliation(s), address(es), and email(s).
    3. Expected number of attendees.
    4. Short abstract with the main idea (up to 200 words).
    5. Keywords listing the main topics covered.
    6. Extended abstract discussing the motivation, impact, and main directions covered (up to 1000 words, including a few references if necessary). Information on the relevance and importance, aspects of novelty, interdisciplinarity and synergies.
    7. Planned composition: What mix of invited presentations, keynotes, panels, demos and posters (having all is not required) is envisaged with any specific tentative information on specific contributors, if known. Explicitly mention if abstract papers are already submitted in the abstract tract.
    8. Title, name, abstract of each activity.
    9. Measures to ensure diversity and addressing any ethical issues (e.g. in case of shared data).
    10. Short bios of the organizer(s), including expertise on the proposed topic (e.g. relevant publications or projects), experience with organizing similar efforts in the past, and a personal website link – if available (up to 500 words).

    The proposals will be judged based on their thematic relevance to ISBI, their focus and novelty, organization and quality, the potential interest to the ISBI community, the credentials of their organizer(s), and the proposal’s completeness in terms of the provided information.

    In case organizers wish to additionally submit work presented in the workshop activities as a series of 1-page abstracts, these abstracts should follow the instructions for the relevant ISBI 2025 abstract track, should abide by the ISBI 2025 paper style, format, and length, their paper submission and reviewing process will be conducted through the ISBI 2025 paper management system, while their peer-reviewing process should follow the main conference reviewing guidelines.

    The Satellite Workshops are expected to foster the return to an in-person attendance experience. Accordingly, for each accepted workshop, the presenters of each activity are expected to participate in-person.

    Workshop Logistics
    Organizers of ISBI 2025 Satellite Workshops will be responsible for the workshop scientific planning and promotion, including the setup of their external web-site (this will be linked from the main ISBI 2025 site but not hosted there), undertaking all communication with the authors, creating and announcing the event schedule, abiding by the Important Dates listed below, and seamlessly communicating with the Workshop Chairs.

    The ISBI 2025 organizers will handle workshop registration, allocation of workshop facilities at the conference venue, and distribution of the workshop papers/material in electronic format, when applicable. Note that workshop attendance will be free-of-charge for all those who register for the main conference, while a reduced registration fee will be charged to workshop-only attendees.

    Workshop Chairs
    TBA

    Submission
    Proposals for the Satellite Workshops must be submitted online by the deadline.
    All proposals should be submitted online through the following link:
    https://edas.info/N32831

    Deadline: October 31, 2024

  • Carrying on the tradition of scientific challenges IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) 2025 will again welcome proposals for scientific challenges. Such challenges have become a main feature of ISBI as they aim to accelerate the pace of biomedical science in various demanding research workloads and clinically relevant problems.

    A challenge should aid quantitative comparisons of competing approaches to cutting-edge research problems in biomedical image analysis, using standardized datasets, evaluation metrics, and multi-institutional collaborations.

    Each challenge proposal needs an organizer who will be responsible for providing training, validation, and testing datasets, defining the tasks, specifying the performance metrics, managing and evaluating entries (through appropriate software environments), and organizing on-site presentations in the challenge workshop. The organizers are ultimately responsible for the success of the challenge. ISBI will assist in advertising and augmenting existing advertisements of the challenges. Some useful points:

    • The organization of a challenge and the agenda for each workshop will be determined exclusively by challenge organizers.
    • The challenge organizers should not rely solely on the on-site evaluation, i.e., while at ISBI..
    • Scientific presentations by the challenge participants during the challenge at ISBI are encouraged.
    • Multi-institutional collaborations are encouraged to ensure the wider applicability of the solutions.
    • New challenge topics as well as topics that were addressed during previous challenges are acceptable.
    • New challenge topics could introduce new imaging devices, new biomedical applications, or existing applications that would benefit from focused attention from the biomedical imaging research community.
    • Challenges that address previous challenge topics could feature, for example, repeating a challenge to track how the field has advanced, addressing bottlenecks in existing processing pipelines, processing larger and more heterogeneous datasets or analyzing specific sub-populations.
    • We also encourage the investigation of alternative formats for hosting challenges.
    • Prospective challenge organizers are encouraged to discuss their plans with the challenge co-chairs at an early stage before the acceptance of the proposal.
    • Challenge organizers will have the opportunity to present interesting findings of their challenge, associated novel methods by challenge participants, and final ranking results of their respective challenge, during the main conference. Challenge organizers are responsible for coordinating the participating teams and provide sufficient time to each to present their top-ranked method.
    • Challenge organizers should notify participating challenge teams that they have the opportunity to publish their work on the ISBI 2025 proceedings.

    How to Submit a Challenge Proposal

    This year we coordinated with the MICCAI Special Interest Group for Biomedical Image Analysis Challenges (BIAS) and adopted a single challenge proposal submission template towards improving the quality of each submission and ensuring uniformity across the reported challenge parameters. Challenge organizers should download the Word template from here.

    Submission Deadline: October 31, 2024

    All challenge proposals are accepted only via the following link:
    https://edas.info/N32831

FAQs

  • Yes. All potential speakers must be included in your proposal therefore, it is critical to make sure they are willing, able, and committed to traveling to ISBI 2025 to present and participate in the proposed session. You can make changes to your speaker roster, but a strong proposal will include a list of speakers who have committed to attend.

  • No, papers are not required with proposal submissions.

  • No. There will be no financial support, travel reimbursements or grants to cover any expenses for speakers that are invited to participate in Workshops, Tutorials, Challenges, and Special Sessions.

  • Yes, they are required to register and pay his or her applicable admission fee to attend the conference. Acceptance of a Proposal is not indicative of complimentary registration.