Dear colleagues,

We invite you to submit your work to DEBS 2026 — the 20th ACM International Conference on Distributed and Event‑Based Systems, taking place June 23–26, 2026, in Lisbon, Portugal, hosted at CIÊNCIAS ULisboa.
More details: https://2026.debs.org

DEBS 2026 is the premier venue for research and industrial innovation in distributed and event‑based systems. The conference covers topics such as complex event processing, scalable data stream processing, intelligent and trustworthy event‑based systems, AI/ML for and with event processing, cloud/fog/edge computing (including serverless systems), distributed programming, blockchains, security and privacy in streaming, and many application domains including IoT, smart cities, logistics, healthcare, finance, multimedia analytics, and cyber‑physical systems.

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TRACKS AND SUBMISSION TYPES
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RESEARCH TRACK
- Regular papers: up to 12 pages (excluding references)
- Short papers: up to 6 pages (including references)
- Double‑blind review; ACM sigconf format (two‑column, 10pt)
Full details: https://2026.debs.org/call-for-research-papers/

INDUSTRY & APPLICATION TRACK
- Applied research, innovative industrial systems, operational experience, AI/ML pipelines, LLM‑powered event processing, edge computing, heterogeneous hardware, sustainability, performance, and deployment insights
Details: https://2026.debs.org/call-for-industry-papers/

POSTERS & DEMOS
- Posters: up to 2 pages
- Demos: 2–4 pages (“Demo:” prefix recommended)
Details: https://2026.debs.org/call-for-posters-and-demos/

GRAND CHALLENGE
- Short papers: up to 6 pages

All accepted papers, posters, and demos will be published in the ACM Digital Library.

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GRAND CHALLENGE "CALL FOR CHALLENGES"
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Companies and researchers are invited to contribute well-specified, evaluable problems backed by representative datasets and well defined evaluation criteria. Selected proposals will have the opportunity to becomes DEBS 2027 Grand Challenge. Grand challenges increase companies visibility and attract original solutions from experts in event and stream processing, contribute to companies strategic R&D leverage, technology benchmarking and influence standards

In previews years the Challenge has spanned multiple domains, including social games, manufacturing equipment, soccer monitoring, smart homes, taxi trips, social networks, RDF, maritime transportation with ML, LiDAR, NILM, AQI, market data, and HDD telemetry, while holding evaluation steady on correctness, throughput, and latency.

Details: https://2026.debs.org/call-for-grand-challenges/

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SERVERLESS COMPUTING WORKSHOP
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DEBS will host the 12th International Workshop on Serverless Computing (WoSC12).

The workshop will be on a hybrid model (in-person or remote) and focus on topics such as (but not limited to):
- Function‑as‑a‑Service (FaaS) and event‑driven execution models
- Serverless orchestration across cloud–edge systems
- Cold‑start mitigation and runtime performance
- Debugging, monitoring, and observability
- Combining serverless, microservices, and event‑based systems

Details will be announced on the DEBS 2026 website: https://2026.debs.org

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IMPORTANT DATES (Anywhere on Earth)
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RESEARCH TRACK
- Abstract registration: February 13, 2026
- Paper submission: February 20, 2026
- Rebuttal period: April 3–10, 2026
- Notification: April 18, 2026
- Camera‑ready: May 15, 2026

INDUSTRY & APPLICATION TRACK
- Submission deadline: March 24, 2026
- Notification: April 21, 2026
- Camera‑ready: May 15, 2026

POSTERS & DEMOS
- Submission deadline: April 10, 2026
- Notification: April 24, 2026
- Camera‑ready: May 1, 2026

GRAND CHALLENGE
- Submission deadline: April 10, 2026
- Notification: April 24, 2026
- Camera-ready: May 1, 2026

DEBS 2026 will take place in person, and authors of accepted contributions are expected to attend and present onsite.

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
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- ACM “sigconf” proceedings style (two‑column, 10pt)
- Research Track: double‑blind review
- Submissions must be original and not under review elsewhere
- Reproducibility encouraged; ACM Artifact badge available
Details: https://2026.debs.org/call-for-research-papers/

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ORGANIZATION
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General Co-Chairs:
- Hugo Miranda (CIÊNCIAS ULisboa, Portugal)
- Nuno Cruz (ISEL, Portugal)

Research Program Committee Co-Chairs:
- Ruben Mayer (University of Bayreuth, Germany)
- Sukanya Bhowmik (University of Potsdam, Germany)

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USEFUL LINKS
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DEBS 2026 Website: https://2026.debs.org
Call for Research Papers: https://2026.debs.org/call-for-research-papers/
Call for Industry & Application Papers: https://2026.debs.org/call-for-industry-papers/
Call for Posters & Demos: https://2026.debs.org/call-for-posters-and-demos/
Call for Grand Challenges: https://2026.debs.org/call-for-grand-challenges/

Program Committee: https://2026.debs.org/program-committee/

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IMPORTANT UPDATE ON ACM’S NEW OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING MODEL
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Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM‑sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access.

Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM:
1. The ACM Open institutional model
2. Paying Article Processing Charges (APCs)

With over 2,600 institutions already part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM‑sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently around 76%). Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open will need to pay an APC unless they qualify for a financial waiver.

To check whether your institution participates in ACM Open and to review the APC Waiver Policy, please refer to:
https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/policy-on-discretionary-open-access-apc-waivers

To ease the transition, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy for 2026:
- $250 APC for ACM/SIG members
- $350 APC for non‑members

This represents a 65% discount funded directly by ACM. Authors are encouraged to advocate for their institutions to join ACM Open during this transition period.

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We look forward to your submissions and to welcoming you to Lisbon for DEBS 2026.

Best regards,
Hugo Miranda, General Co-Chair, DEBS 2026
Bernardo Almeida Publicity Chair, DEBS 2026
CIÊNCIAS ULisboa