Correctness for Scientific Computing Systems
Can you apply?
This grant is for research teams developing correctness methods for scientific computing systems. Eligible organizations include U.S. colleges and universities, DOE National Laboratories, and nonprofit research institutions like museums and observatories located in the U.S.
PIs and senior personnel must hold tenured, tenure-track, or primary full-time research/teaching positions at eligible institutions, or be DOE Lab employees. Projects require at least one PI with scientific computing expertise and one with expertise in formal reasoning and program verification.
The program emphasizes collaboration between scientific computing researchers and computer scientists specializing in formal methods, program analysis, verification, and related areas.
This grant is for research teams developing correctness methods for scientific computing systems. Eligible organizations include U.S. colleges and universities, DOE National Laboratories, and nonprofit research institutions like museums and observatories located in the U.S.
PIs and senior personnel must hold tenured, tenure-track, or primary full-time research/teaching positions at eligible institutions, or be DOE Lab employees. Projects require at least one PI with scientific computing expertise and one with expertise in formal reasoning and program verification.
The program emphasizes collaboration between scientific computing researchers and computer scientists specializing in formal methods, program analysis, verification, and related areas.
Program description
Correctness for Scientific Computing Systems (CS2) is a joint program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE). The program addresses challenges that are both core to DOE’s mission and essential to NSF’s mission of ensuring broad scientific progress. The program’s overarching goal is to elevate correctness as a fundamental requirement for scientific computing tools and tool chains, spanning low-level libraries through complex multi-physics simulations and emerging scientific workflows.
At an elementary level, correctness of a system means that desired behavioral properties will be satisfied during the system’s execution. In the context of scientific computing, correctness can be understood, at both the level of software and hardware, as absence of faulty behaviors such as excessive numerical rounding, floating-point exceptions, data races deadlocks, memory faults, violations of specifications at interfaces of system modules, and so on. The CS2 program puts correctness on an equal footing with performance, the focus of current scientific computing research. This program envisions the necessity of proving correctness even in performant scientific computing systems. Such correctness proofs themselves might rely upon multiple factors, including correctness of static and runtime program analyses. Recognizing that many scientific computing applications are inherently statistical, use probabilistic or randomized algorithms, and/or deal with uncertain data, probabilistic notions of correctness may be needed. It is also critical to realize that correctness guarantees are provided with respect to some pre-defined system model. For many reasons, including misspecification, approximation, and defect, the state space allowed by real systems might depart from that model. When this happens, the ability to probe the system to isolate the discrepancy is a key challenge in many domains.
CS2 requires close and continuous collaboration between researchers in two complementary areas of expertise. One area is scientific computing, which, for this solicitation, is broadly construed to include: models and simulations of scientific theories; management and analysis of data from scientific simulations, observations, and experiments; libraries for numerical computation; and allied topics. The second area is formal reasoning and mechanized proving of properties of programs, which, for this solicitation, is broadly construed to include automatic/interactive/auto-active verification, runtime verification, type systems, abstract interpretation, programming languages, program analysis, program logic, compilers, concurrency, stochastic reasoning, static and dynamic testing, property-based testing, and allied topics.
Who can apply
Eligible applicants
Details
This grant is for research teams developing correctness methods for scientific computing systems. Eligible organizations include U.S. colleges and universities, DOE National Laboratories, and nonprofit research institutions like museums and observatories located in the U.S.
PIs and senior personnel must hold tenured, tenure-track, or primary full-time research/teaching positions at eligible institutions, or be DOE Lab employees. Projects require at least one PI with scientific computing expertise and one with expertise in formal reasoning and program verification.
The program emphasizes collaboration between scientific computing researchers and computer scientists specializing in formal methods, program analysis, verification, and related areas.
How to apply
Application links
Required documents
- NSF Cover Sheet (SF-424 R&R)
- Project Narrative/Technical Proposal
- Budget and Budget Justification
- Current CV(s) for all PIs and senior personnel
- Letter(s) of Commitment from collaborating institutions
- Data Management Plan
Program contact
- 👤 U.S. National Science Foundation
- 📧 grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov
- 📞 703-292-4203
Funding track record
Recent awards under CFDA 81.049 from the last 3 years — real organizations that won funding through this same program.
Top 10 Largest Recent Awards
-
$1,196,474,884
-
$836,082,435
-
$396,718,000
-
$241,000,000
-
$237,065,653
-
$197,476,477
-
$126,425,786
-
$120,067,617
-
$78,303,346
-
$76,691,103
Top States by Funding
- CA 19 awards $1,758.0M
- MI 6 awards $1,410.1M
- MA 12 awards $366.3M
- WI 5 awards $341.9M
- IL 4 awards $271.0M
Source: USAspending.gov — federal spending transparency. Data covers last 3 years.
FAQ
Who can submit a proposal to this program?
U.S. colleges, universities, DOE National Laboratories, and nonprofit research institutions can submit. For-profit organizations are not eligible.
What are the PI qualifications?
PIs must hold a tenured, tenure-track, or primary full-time research/teaching position at an eligible U.S. institution, or be a DOE Lab employee. Every project needs at least one PI in scientific computing and one in formal reasoning.
What research areas are supported?
The program funds work on proving correctness in scientific computing tools, libraries, simulations, and workflows. This includes verification methods, program analysis, testing, and runtime checking.
Is this competitive to win?
Yes, this is a highly competitive NSF-DOE joint program. Strong proposals demonstrate novel methods and close collaboration between the two required expertise areas.
What is the funding level?
Award amounts are not specified in the solicitation. Contact the program officers or review similar NSF programs for typical funding ranges.
💡 Tips for applicants
- Assemble a team with both scientific computing and formal methods expertise early. This is not optional—every project requires both.
- Clearly articulate the specific correctness challenge your project addresses. Be concrete about what faulty behaviors or system properties you will verify or prove.
- Demonstrate how formal reasoning methods will be applied to real scientific computing tools or simulations, not abstract research only.
- Emphasize the collaboration and communication plan between the two complementary expertise areas throughout the proposal.
- Review recent NSF and DOE publications on program verification and scientific computing to position your work within the current landscape.
⚠️ Common mistakes
Submitting without both scientific computing and formal methods expertise represented among PIs or senior personnel. Proposing research that only addresses one discipline without genuine integration. Failing to clearly define the specific correctness properties or faulty behaviors the project will target and validate.
Similar grants
- OPEN 27-0343-10 FFY27 Local Agency General Non-Enforcement — Illinois Department of Transportation
- OPEN 2026 JAG/SCIP Innovation — Iowa Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy
- OPEN FY27 College and Career Transition Counselor Grant Application – Sixth Round — Iowa Education
- OPEN CDBG 2024 Disaster Recovery – Buyout — Iowa Economic Development Authority
- CLOSED 2023 AGR Potato Research and Market Development Program — Montana Department of Agriculture