We invite researchers, practitioners, and domain experts to our CHI 2026 workshop XR for Challenging Environments -- Enabling Human Performance and Agency under Stress. This long-format, in-person workshop will build a cross-disciplinary community to define a research agenda for the next generation of mission-critical eXtended Reality (XR) systems in demanding contexts such as emergency medicine, public safety, advanced manufacturing, or space missions. The workshop will identify key challenges, exchange ideas, and advance XR-based assistance and augmentation for professionals under stress, focusing on three shifts in perspective: from 'static trust' to calibrated trust under stress; from 'fragile seamlessness' to resilience by design; and from 'screen-based transparency' to situated and embodied explainability.

Submission Guidelines

We solicit 2-4 page position papers (excluding references) using the ACM Master Article Submission Template. Submissions may present novel concepts, empirical findings, provocative statements, or case studies addressing one or more workshop themes. Papers should be submitted via our workshop website and will be peer-reviewed by the organizers for quality, relevance, and potential to stimulate discussion. With author consent, accepted papers will be published as open-access proceedings (e.g., arXiv or CEUR-WS).

Requirements

At least one author of each accepted submission must register for and attend this in-person only workshop to present their work. Participation requires CHI 2026 registration, but no additional fee will be charged. Further details, submission guidelines, and deadlines are available on the workshop website: https://xr4ce-chi26.tech-experience.at

Venue

The conference will be held in conjunction with CHI 2026, April 13-17, Barcelona (Spain).

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to raimund.schatz@ait.ac.at