Scientific Software Program (web)

The Scientific Software Program gives research groups in the School of Chemical Sciences and elsewhere on campus affordable access to cutting-edge commercial applications from leading companies in scientific computing, computational chemistry, computational biology and molecular modeling.  In particular, "post-genomic" modeling capacities are available, e.g., prediction and elucidation of protein structure and function, discovery and design of ligands, and creation and screening of virtual (combinatorial) libraries of potential ligands.

The School of Chemical Sciences subsidizes the program significantly for SCS-related members to keep the costs as low as possible.

The Scientific Software Program at a glance: 

New packages greatly extend the range of applications: 

Several new or updated software packages are now available for academic research and teaching: 

• Chemical Computing Group's MOE (Molecular Operating Environment) for life sciences and computational chemistry
• Spartan for quantum chemistry
• The Schrödinger Suite

Frequently Asked Questions: 

What are the eligibility requirements to participate in the Scientific Software Program?  

You must be an employee (faculty, staff, or graduate student) of the University of Illinois to request access.

The Scientific Software Program applications can only be installed on computers owned by the University of Illinois. 

How much does the program cost?  

To see the costs of the program, please visit https://answers.uillinois.edu/scs/internal/scientific-software-costing (campus login required).

Please note that updated costs will take effect July 1, 2023.  

How were these costs calculated? 

Per government costing regulations, the "true" costs were computed based on the actual cost of each license divided by historical usage of each application.  The School of Chemical Sciences and the Department of Chemistry have subsidized each license to get the costs to their current levels. These costs will be re-evaluated annually, based on licensing costs, number of subscribers, and ability of our departments to subsidize the total.  

What does "per-computer, per-application" mean? 

The Scientific Software Program costing only charges research groups for the particular software application that they need.  Each computer that will access a particular software application will have its own subscription to that application.   When you sign up for the Program, you will need to let SCS Computing know the title of the software, and the name and IP address of the computer(s) that you wish to run the software on.

How will this be billed? 

The cost for each application is billed monthly to a University CFOP which you must provide during the sign-up process.  

How do I sign up? 

Visit: https://go.scs.illinois.edu/scientific_software to sign up!

New groups and new computers can join the program at any time.  Please note that a minimum 6-month subscription is required for each computer that joins the program.  After the initial 6 month subscription period, a computer can drop out of the program at any time  The fee also includes priority access for research groups to workshops on the software organized by SCS Computing and the contracting software companies.

More Information: 

If you have any question about the Scientific Software Program, or have questions about technical aspects of the packages, such as installation on your group's computers and license check-out, please contact SCS Computing at scs-help@illinois.edu.