Optical and infrared interferometry continues to rapidly develop and produce new scientific results. As astronomy in general goes through a transformative phase, we encounter both opportunities and challenges. The primary goals of this conference are to allow the attendees to learn firsthand about the exciting capabilities found in facilities across the globe and to discuss the future prospects for interferometry in technology and instrumentation. The SPIE meeting continues to play a unique role: the singular venue that brings together interferometrists from the world over. No other conference can match the depth and breadth of interferometry coverage to be presented in Edinburgh, Scotland, 26 June to 1 July, 2016. 

For our previous meeting (Montreal, 2014) the key themes were the increased scientific productivity, the emergence of new instrumentation and the widening of interferometry’s audience even in the face of shrinking budgets. Closure-phase measurements and nulling results of the large aperture telescopes continue to help push astrophysical investigations of fainter objects. New calibration methods and reconstruction techniques are yielding unprecedented imaging and astrometric precision, opening new avenues for stellar astrophysics, studies of active galactic nuclei, and extra-solar planet detection. New instrumentation will bring all these aspects together in the very near future, with increased access to non-specialists in interferometry thanks to general user facilities and data reduction software. 

However, future investments in interferometric projects are not guaranteed beyond 2015 due to the large costs of general astronomical facilities like ALMA or ELTs. This is an opportunity for significantly increasing the impact of optical and IR interferometers but the facilities have to be upgraded or new missions have to be proposed to exploit the available budgets and to provide complementary scientific insight. These new projects have to be supported by technology developments in terms of detectors and photonics systems. 

This conference will primarily focus on the latest innovations in technology and engineering for ground- and space-based interferometry in the optical and infrared, including new instrumentation, techniques and software. Scientific results will be highlighted, with priority given to findings that push current facilities to their limits, exploit innovative techniques and technologies, or embrace new areas of astrophysics made possible with milli- and microarcsecond angular resolution. 

While attendees will enjoy invited talks on recent technological and scientific breakthroughs as well as provocative panel discussions, most conference time will be scheduled based on the response to this Call for Papers.