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On this page you find:

General Information
What is a Good Proposal?
Organizer Team
List of Invitees
Format of Proposal - Checklist - Example
Submission Deadlines
What Happens Next

The main objective of Schloss Dagstuhl LCI is the organization of Dagstuhl Seminars and Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshops. The organization starts with a proposal written in English that will be examined by Dagstuhl's Scientific Directorate.

In general, the goals of Dagstuhl Seminars and Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshops differ, however, their proposals are very similar.

In the following you will find some hints concerning the preparation of a successful proposal. 

A proposal should strongly motivate the topic of a seminar. It should give a short introduction to the topic for non-experts and argue for its relevance. Since Schloss Dagstuhl LCI is a research center for computer science, the topic should have a clear connection to computer science. In particular, this mostly concerns topics that combine computer science and an outside field.

A Dagstuhl Seminar discusses current research. The best proposals strike a balance between presenting some known results and a vision what these results may lead to. A proposal should identify some objectives or prospective outcomes.

A Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop takes a broader view compared to a Dagstuhl Seminar. It analyzes the state of the art, limitations, and future perspectives of a field. The discussion is lead by a small group of established researchers. The result of a Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop is a manifesto that provides guidance, especially for funding agencies and other parties concerned with research in the long run.

Most seminars are related to past or upcoming Dagstuhl Seminars; commonalities and differences must be identified. When a seminar is a successor of a similar seminar in the past, the Scientific Directorate is curious to read about consequences of the previous seminar.

A proposal is submitted jointly by at most four organizers who are established leaders in their field, especially in the field covered by the seminar. They represent the different communities invited to the seminar and are preferably from different institutions to increase the attractiveness of the seminar.

 

There are no restrictions regarding the origin, workplace, or nationality of organizers. However, national and professional diversity is desirable. Dagstuhl is making an effort to increase the number of organizers from industry as well as the number of female organizers. For Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshops national diversity is considered less important.

If a seminar serves as a follow-up of a previous seminar, the organizer team must change, altough not completely. The goal is to retain the dynamic nature of seminars and to attract new communities and topics.

Your proposal must include for each organizer a brief research CV that should give an overview of an organizer's academic career and especially point out community services and recognitions. However, it should not list every paper ever published as the five most relevant papers are sufficient.

A proposal must include a list of invitees. There are differences between Dagstuhl Seminars and Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshops. The optimal number of participants is typically

• between 40 and 45 for a Dagstuhl Seminar;
• between 15 and 25 for a Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop.

However, not all invitees may be able to attend. The proposal should therefore list

• 50 to 80 researchers for a Dagstuhl Seminar;
• 20 to 35 researchers for a Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop.

These should be split into two groups: people who are contacted first and people who are contacted only when capacity is left.

For the group to be as balanced as possible, we suggest to consider the following criteria when compiling the list of invitees:

• International diversity (less important for Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshops).
• Relation of experts to the focus of the seminar.
• Representation of research communities.
• Balance between specialists from theory and practice (provided this is appropriate for the seminar).
• Good mixture between proven experts and promising young research scientists (approximate ratio of 75% to 25%). (This is less important  for Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshops.)
• Please consider inviting female researchers in particular.

We request that your list of invitees include the following informations for each person:

• Name, affiliation, postal address, email address
• Research interest (in relation to the topic of the proposal)

Please highlight women, young researchers, and researchers from industry in your list of invitees.

For the structure of your proposal, please refer to our checklist. As an example we also provide a proposal for a Dagstuhl Seminar that we particularly liked. Please feel free to ask us for help by email at service(at)dagstuhl.de.
Please remember proposals are to be submitted in English.

Proposals are reviewed twice a year by Dagstuhl's Scientific Directorate. The corresponding deadlines for submissions are:

• April 15th
• November 1st

Please use our electronic submission tool available at www.dagstuhl.de/dosa

After the submission of your proposal, it will be reviewed by our Scientific Directorate. The reviewing process may last 2-3 months. Then, a notification is sent to the main organizer. A proposal may be

• rejected,
• rejected but proposed for a re-submission, and
• accepted with modifications, and accepted without modifications.

 

When everything goes smoothly and your seminar is approved, you will then be dealing with the joys and duties of an organizer detailed in Information for the Organizers.

 

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