We have described a first systematic blind challenge initiative in the field of hydrogen bondinduced shifts in solvating water molecules. It consists of a training set of 10 literature-known 1:1 hydrate complexes spanning a downshift window of nearly 200 cm -1 . 10 vibrationally unassigned monohydrates are proposed for the actual blind test and promised to be experimentally characterised during the runtime of the challenge. The combined experimental results and predictions will be jointly published to identify the most promising empirical, semiempirical and ab-initio models in the field. Several options for the extension of this initial challenge in chemical and spectral space are proposed.