Second Call for Shared Task Proposals – ArabicNLP 2026 (co-located with EMNLP 2026)

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Hamzah Luqman

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Apr 20, 2026, 1:50:44 PM (2 days ago) Apr 20
to SIGARAB: Special Interest Group on Arabic Natural Language Processing

Apologies for cross-posting

The Fourth Arabic Natural Language Processing Conference (ArabicNLP 2026) will be co-located with EMNLP 2026 in Budapest, Hungary, on October 24–29, 2026. We invite proposals for shared tasks related to Arabic NLP to be organized as part of ArabicNLP 2026.

We welcome proposals on topics across Arabic NLP, including but not limited to: core NLP, dialects, speech, multimodality, evaluation, safety, cultural grounding, Arabic LLMs, resources, and socially impactful applications.

We especially encourage proposals that broaden participation across regions, institutions, and levels of experience. We welcome contributions from both established and emerging groups, and we value efforts that help lower barriers to participation in shared tasks.

Proposal Submission

Proposals should be submitted in PDF format and can be up to 4 pages long.

Each proposal should include the following:

  1. Overview of the proposed task

  2. Motivation and significance

  3. Task description

  4. Data/resource description, including the current status of the data
    (ready / in progress / planned)

  5. Evaluation methodology

  6. Baseline system or pilot run details (if available)

  7. Expected participation potential, including why the task is likely to attract teams

  8. Publicity and outreach plan

  9. Tentative timeline

  10. Task organizers (name, email, affiliation)

Required Readiness Information

Because ArabicNLP 2026 shared tasks aim to start from a stronger operational baseline, proposals must also clearly state the status of the following:

  • Dataset readiness, including whether train/dev/test sets already exist

  • Evaluation script readiness

  • Baseline feasibility evidence, such as at least one baseline run, pilot experiment, or partial dry run

  • Competition platform plan, such as CodaLab or another competition website

  • Participant communication plan, including mailing list, website, or other support channel

  • Data release and maintenance plan, including whether resources can remain available after the conference

Proposals that already have a dataset, evaluation script, and baseline evidence ready will be viewed more favorably.

Selection Process

Proposals will be reviewed by the organizing committee and selected based on factors including:

  • Novelty and significance of the task

  • Expected community interest and participation potential

  • Quality and readiness of the data/resources

  • Soundness of the evaluation methodology

  • Feasibility of the timeline

  • Expected impact on Arabic NLP

  • Clarity of the publicity and sustainability plan

  • Relevant experience in organizing shared tasks

When appropriate, closely related proposals may be merged into broader tracks to improve coordination and increase community impact.

Task Consolidation and Merging

We encourage proposers to consider merging with closely related tasks from previous ArabicNLP editions when appropriate, especially when such merging can strengthen dataset coverage, increase participation, reduce fragmentation, and improve community impact.

During the review process, the organizing committee may also recommend or request merging between similar proposals if this is deemed beneficial for the overall shared task program. In such cases, organizers will be contacted and asked to coordinate toward a unified task structure.

Previous editions:

1- ArabicNLP 2025: https://arabicnlp2025.sigarab.org/shared-tasks 

2- ArabicNLP 2024: https://arabicnlp2024.sigarab.org/shared-tasks 

3- ArabicNLP 2023: https://arabicnlp2023.sigarab.org/shared-tasks 

4- WANLP 2022: https://sites.google.com/view/wanlp2022/shared-tasks 

5- WANLP 2021: https://sites.google.com/view/wanlp2021/#h.3qw6t52gyi8m 

Task Organization Expectations

Upon acceptance, task organizers will be expected to:

  • finalize and release task data and evaluation materials on time

  • provide participants with all needed documentation and support

  • create and maintain the competition website and communication channels

  • manage shared task paper submissions and review

  • prepare the shared task overview paper

  • manage system description paper submissions

  • help ensure that submitted papers (both shared task overview and system description papers) comply with formatting and submission requirements

Shared Task Proposal Submission

Proposals should be submitted through the following form:

Submission Link: https://forms.gle/gwUJcDyKcQnvNsMM8

All deadlines are 11:59 pm UTC -12h (“Anywhere on Earth”).

  • April 25, 2026: Shared task proposals due

  • May 2, 2026: Notification of shared task proposal acceptance

Important Dates for Accepted Shared Tasks

Proposals should target the following dates when planning their tasks:

  • (Recommended) May 16, 2026: Release of task website, training/dev data, and evaluation scripts

  • (Recommended) July 20, 2026: Registration deadline and release of the blind test data

  • (Recommended) July 30, 2026: Final results released

  • (Mandatory) August 22, 2026: Camera-ready system description papers due

  • (Mandatory) September 1, 2026: Shared task overview papers due

  • September 10, 2026: Conference camera-ready deadline

  • October 24–29, 2026: ArabicNLP 2026 / EMNLP 2026, Budapest, Hungary

A more detailed shared-task operational calendar, including intermediate internal checkpoints, will be communicated to accepted organizers.

For questions, please contact the Shared Task Chairs: arabicnlp-sha...@sigarab.org 


Best regards,

Hamzah Luqman & Sakhar Alkhereyf
ArabicNLP 2026 Shared Tasks Chairs
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