https://boincsynergy.ca/wiki/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=IbercivisIbercivis - Revision history2026-07-08T04:18:28ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.8https://boincsynergy.ca/wiki/index.php?title=Ibercivis&diff=1651&oldid=prevAl Piskun: first light2026-06-28T22:10:04Z<p>first light</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Infobox software<br />
| name = Ibercivis<br />
| logo = Logocivis.jpg<br />
| logo caption = Ibercivis logo<br />
| screenshot = Ibercivis.gif<br />
| caption = Ibercivis BOINC screensaver<br />
| description = Ibercivis was a completed Multi-Application volunteer computing platform from Spain and Portugal that ran simulations in nuclear fusion, protein docking, materials science, and number theory before being relaunched in 2020 to screen drugs against SARS-CoV-2.<br />
<br />
| status = Completed<br />
| category = Multi-Application<br />
| compute = CPU<br />
| dependencies = None<br />
<br />
| developer = Spanish National Research Council and Ibercivis Foundation<br />
| author = Institute of Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI), University of Zaragoza<br />
| sponsor = Ibercivis Foundation<br />
| maintainer = <br />
| released = {{Start date and age|2008|06|20}}<br />
| completed = {{Start date and age|2020|08}}<br />
| discontinued = <br />
| repository = <br />
<br />
| programming language = <br />
| operating system = Windows, Linux, macOS<br />
| size = <br />
<br />
| stats as of = {{Start date and age|2020|05|16}}<br />
| average performance = 13.936 TFLOPS<br />
| active users = 917<br />
| total users = 924<br />
| active hosts = 2375<br />
| total hosts = 2383<br />
<br />
| rac = <br />
| credit per day = <br />
| gpu performance = <br />
| cpu performance = <br />
<br />
| website = {{URL|https://boinc.ibercivis.es}}<br />
| license = <br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Ibercivis''' was a [[Wikipedia:Volunteer computing|volunteer computing]] platform that allowed internet users to donate idle [[Wikipedia:Computer cycle|computer cycles]] to scientific research through [[Wikipedia:BOINC|BOINC]]. Based in Spain and developed in cooperation with Portuguese institutions, Ibercivis ran a wide variety of applications spanning [[Wikipedia:Nuclear fusion|nuclear fusion]] research, [[Wikipedia:Protein docking|protein docking]], [[Wikipedia:Materials science|materials science]], [[Wikipedia:Number theory|number theory]], and the social sciences, before its original incarnation was discontinued and the platform was briefly revived in 2020 to support drug-screening efforts against [[Wikipedia:Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2|SARS-CoV-2]].<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis">{{Cite web |title=Ibercivis |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibercivis |website=Wikipedia |access-date=2026-06-28}}</ref><br />
<br />
The project's name is a [[Wikipedia:Portmanteau|portmanteau]] of "Iberia" and the Latin word ''civis'', meaning "citizen."<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
<br />
== History ==<br />
<br />
Ibercivis traces its roots to '''Zivis''', a local volunteer computing project developed by BIFI and funded by the [[Wikipedia:Ayuntamiento|ayuntamiento]] (city council) of [[Wikipedia:Zaragoza|Zaragoza]], which began operating in 2007.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><ref name="ibercivis-history">{{Cite web |title=History and patronage |url=https://ibercivis.es/en/history-and-patronage/ |website=Fundación Ibercivis |access-date=2026-06-28}}</ref> Zivis was sponsored by the Zaragoza city council together with Telefónica, Endesa, Ibercaja, the Zaragoza City of Knowledge Foundation, and the [[wikipedia:University of Zaragoza|University of Zaragoza]].<ref name="ovtt">{{Cite web |title=IBERCIVIS, science at home |url=https://www.ovtt.org/en/ibercivis-science-at-home/ |website=Observatorio de la Transferencia de Tecnología y Conocimiento |access-date=2026-06-28}}</ref><br />
<br />
Building on Zivis, Ibercivis was officially presented at the headquarters of the [[wikipedia:Spanish National Research Council|Spanish National Research Council]] (CSIC) in Madrid on 20 June 2008, with the research areas of its first three applications being nuclear fusion, protein folding, and materials simulations.<ref name="ibercivis-history" /><ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /> The project was developed with the cooperation of the Institute of Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI) at the University of Zaragoza, the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas ([[wikipedia:CIEMAT|CIEMAT]]), CETA-CIEMAT, CSIC, and [[wikipedia:RedIRIS|RedIris]], positioning Ibercivis as a European counterpart to [[SETI@home]] and the broader BOINC ecosystem.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
<br />
In July 2009, following an agreement signed at the Luso-Spanish Summit held in [[wikipedia:Zamora, Spain|Zamora, Spain]] in January 2009, the platform was extended into Portugal.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /> Several Portuguese institutions subsequently joined, including the Portuguese Ministry of Science, the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the [[wikipedia:University of Coimbra|University of Coimbra]], and the Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics (LIP).<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
<br />
At its June 2008 launch, Ibercivis had around 3,000 registered users.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /> By December 2012 this had grown to over 19,800 users across 124 countries, with roughly 55,000 registered hosting devices, of which more than 3,600 were active weekly.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /> An organizational profile from the era described the project as having attracted close to 30,000 users since its 2008 launch, with around 3,000 contributing computing power on a daily basis, drawing participating research groups from Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Mexico.<ref name="ovtt" /><br />
<br />
On 14 November 2011, Ibercivis was formally established as a private, non-profit foundation at CSIC's Madrid headquarters.<ref name="ibercivis-history" /> The founding entities of the Ibercivis Foundation were the University of Zaragoza, CIEMAT, CSIC, the Government of Aragon, the Zaragoza City of Knowledge Foundation, the Ikerbasque Foundation, the public business entity Red.es, and Spain's Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.<ref name="ibercivis-history" /> The Foundation went on to describe itself as having deployed more than 60 experiments from 40 different research groups, reaching over 60,000 citizen scientists across volunteer computing, volunteer sensing, and participatory-experiment formats.<ref name="citizenscience-eu">{{Cite web |title=Organisation :: Ibercivis Foundation |url=https://citizenscience.eu/organisation/2 |website=European Citizen Science Association |access-date=2026-06-28}}</ref><br />
<br />
The original BOINC platform was intended to run indefinitely as a [[multi-application]] project in the style of [[World Community Grid]], allowing users to choose which research applications to support.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /> By 2020, however, the original boinc.ibercivis.es server had gone dark, with its [[wikipedia:Transport Layer Security|SSL]] certificate expired and no work being distributed; community discussion on [[wikipedia:BOINC|BOINC]] statistics forums called for the project to be formally retired.<ref name="boincstats-retire">{{Cite web |title=Forum::The Projects::Time to Retire Ibercivis BOINC |url=https://www.boincstats.com/forum/10/12709,1 |website=BOINCstats/BAM! |access-date=2026-06-28}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== COVID-Phym relaunch ===<br />
<br />
In April 2020, the Ibercivis Foundation and CSIC relaunched the platform under a new project, '''COVID-Phym''', to screen existing approved drugs for antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the [[wikipedia:COVID-19 pandemic|COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /> The relaunch reset the user database, requiring volunteers to register new accounts rather than carrying over statistics from the original platform.<ref name="boincstats-back">{{Cite web |title=Forum::New projects::Ibercivis project is back again |url=https://www.boincstats.com/forum/11/12478,1 |website=BOINCstats/BAM! |access-date=2026-06-28}}</ref> As of the relaunch in May 2020, this "Ibercivis 2" incarnation reported 917 active users and 2,375 active hosts.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /> No new work was distributed after roughly August 2020, and the project's certificate again lapsed not long afterward, effectively ending the platform's BOINC operations.<ref name="boincstats-retire" /><br />
<br />
== Completed and discontinued applications ==<br />
<br />
Over its operating life, Ibercivis hosted a wide range of scientific applications contributed by research groups across Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Mexico.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><ref name="ovtt" /> Applications that were completed or discontinued by May 2020 included:<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
<br />
* '''Fusion''' ("a star on your screen") &mdash; simulated the [[wikipedia:Plasma (physics)|plasmas]] expected in the [[wikipedia:International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor|International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor]] (ITER), supporting scientists at CIEMAT's National Fusion Laboratory and BIFI. The application contributed computing time toward modeling charged-particle transport and confinement in the Spanish TJ-II [[wikipedia:Stellarator|stellarator]], among other magnetic-confinement fusion research.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><ref name="boinc-af">{{Cite web |title=Fusion (Ibercivis) |url=https://www.boinc-af.org/projets-physique-chimie/fusion-ibercivis.html |website=L'Alliance Francophone |access-date=2026-06-28}}</ref><br />
* '''Docking''' ("looking for anti-cancer drugs") &mdash; simulated [[Wikipedia:Protein docking|protein docking]] to search for new medicines, developed by the Bioinformatics Unit of the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC-UAM), with the goal of finding effective treatments for diseases such as [[wikipedia:Cancer|cancer]]. (See also: [[Docking@Home]], an unrelated BOINC project pursuing similar goals at the University of Delaware.)<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Materials''' ("simulation of magnetic systems") &mdash; aided physicists at the [[wikipedia:Universidad Complutense de Madrid|Universidad Complutense de Madrid]], the Universidad de Extremadura, and BIFI in studying how non-magnetic impurities affect the magnetic-to-non-magnetic phase transition in materials, with applications to magnetic hard disks and superconductors.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Nanoluz''' ("light at a nanoscale") &mdash; investigated how light interacts with metal [[wikipedia:Nanoparticle|nanoparticles]] at scientists at the Institute of Optics Daza Valdés (CSIC), with potential applications in solar panels and medical and biological analysis.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''IberNet''' ("let's research inside Ibercivis") &mdash; studied the structure of the Ibercivis volunteer base itself as a [[wikipedia:Social network|social network]], aiming to apply the findings to the study of large-scale social dynamics more broadly.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Amiloide''' &mdash; searched digital compound libraries for candidate drugs that could interfere with the [[wikipedia:Amyloid|amyloid]] aggregation implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, principally [[wikipedia:Familial amyloid polyneuropathy|familial amyloid polyneuropathy]] and [[wikipedia:Alzheimer's disease|Alzheimer's disease]]. The project was led by the Structural and Computational Biology Group at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC), University of Coimbra.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Neurosim''' ("an immersion in the molecular structure of memory") &mdash; analyzed the structural properties of [[wikipedia:Amino acid|amino acids]] and small [[wikipedia:Peptide|peptides]] active in the human brain and nervous system, run by scientists at the Institute of Matter Structure, CSIC, by simulating the energy landscape of individual amino acids.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Adsorption''' &mdash; studied the [[wikipedia:Adsorption|adsorption]] properties of pillared clays used as industrial catalysts and gas-storage materials, on behalf of researchers at the Instituto de Química-Física Rocasolano, CSIC.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Cuanticables''' ("quantic wires simulations") &mdash; used by scientists at the [[wikipedia:University of Buenos Aires|University of Buenos Aires]] to model how material defects in [[wikipedia:Quantum wire|quantum wires]] affect the electric current passing through them.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Sanidad''' ("improved diagnostics") &mdash; supported physicists in Andalusia studying the safe medical use of [[wikipedia:Ionizing radiation|ionizing radiation]] in diagnostics and [[wikipedia:Radiotherapy|radiotherapy]].<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Criticalidad''' &mdash; helped Mexican researchers study electron transport through disordered systems exhibiting [[wikipedia:Fractal|fractal]] properties near the [[wikipedia:Anderson localization|Anderson localization]] transition.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Soluvel''' &mdash; calculated [[wikipedia:Solubility|solvation]] energies of compounds to identify potential toxicity or pharmaceutical value, run by the Laboratory of Molecular Simulation of Separation and Reaction Engineering (LSRE) at the [[wikipedia:University of Porto|University of Porto]].<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
* '''Primalidad''' ("search for Wilson primes") &mdash; an open citizen-science mathematics application that searched for the next [[wikipedia:Wilson prime|Wilson prime]] after the only three known at the time, <math>5</math>, <math>13</math>, and <math>563</math>.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /> A [[wikipedia:Wilson prime|Wilson prime]] is a [[wikipedia:Prime number|prime]] <math>p</math> satisfying<br />
<br />
::<math>p^2 \mid (p-1)! + 1</math><br />
<br />
: It was conjectured at the time that any fourth Wilson prime would have to exceed <math>5 \times 10^{8}</math>.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
<br />
== Active applications (2020 relaunch) ==<br />
<br />
As of May 2020, the relaunched platform ran a single active application:<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
<br />
* '''COVID-Phym''' &mdash; screened existing approved drugs for antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2.<ref name="wikipedia-ibercivis" /><br />
<br />
== Scientific publications ==<br />
<br />
== Scientific publications ==<br />
<br />
Ibercivis-related computing has contributed to peer-reviewed research across physics, chemistry, biomedicine, and citizen-science methodology. A comprehensive, continually updated bibliography of papers arising from BOINC-based computing across all projects, including Ibercivis, is maintained at the official BOINC publications page.<ref name="boinc-pubs">{{Cite web |title=Publications by BOINC Projects |url=https://boinc.berkeley.edu/pubs.php |website=BOINC |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2026-06-28}}</ref> Selected publications include:<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Martínez de Salazar |first1=Pablo |last2=Ramos |first2=Javier |last3=Cruz |first3=Victor L. |last4=Polo |first4=Rosa |last5=del Amo |first5=Julia |last6=Martínez-Salazar |first6=Javier |title=[https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/220537 Tenofovir and remdesivir ensemble docking with the SARS-CoV-2 polymerase and template-nascent RNA] |year=2020 |doi=10.22541/au.160133726.63184055}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Jorge |first1=Miguel |title=[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcc.24689 Predicting hydrophobic solvation by molecular simulation: 2. New united-atom model for alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes] |journal=Journal of Computational Chemistry |year=2017 |doi=10.1002/jcc.24689}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Jorge |first1=Miguel |last2=Garrido |first2=Nuno M. |last3=Simões |first3=Carlos J. V. |last4=Silva |first4=Cândida G. |last5=Brito |first5=Rui M. M. |title=[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcc.24690 Predicting hydrophobic solvation by molecular simulation: 1. Testing united-atom alkane models] |journal=Journal of Computational Chemistry |year=2017 |doi=10.1002/jcc.24690}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Sagarra |first1=Oleguer |last2=Gutiérrez-Roig |first2=Mario |last3=Bonhoure |first3=Isabelle |last4=Perelló |first4=Josep |title=[http://journal.frontiersin.org/Article/10.3389/fphy.2015.00093/abstract Citizen Science Practices for Computational Social Science Research: The Conceptualization of Pop-Up Experiments] |journal=Frontiers in Physics |year=2016 |doi=10.3389/fphy.2015.00093}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Silva |first1=Cândida |last2=Monteiro |first2=Antonio Jose |last3=Manahl |first3=Caroline |display-authors=etal |title=[https://jcom.sissa.it/archive/15/01/JCOM_1501_2016_A02 Cell Spotting: educational and motivational outcomes of cell biology citizen science project in the classroom] |journal=Journal of Science Communication |year=2016 |doi=10.22323/2.15010202}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Ponciano |first1=Lesandro |last2=Brasileiro |first2=Francisco |title=[https://arxiv.org/abs/1501.02134 Finding Volunteers' Engagement Profiles in Human Computation for Citizen Science Projects] |year=2015 |doi=10.48550/ARXIV.1501.02134}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Guerrero |first1=Ginés D. |last2=Imbernón |first2=Baldomero |last3=Pérez-Sánchez |first3=Horacio |last4=Sanz |first4=Francisco |last5=García |first5=José M. |last6=Cecilia |first6=José M. |title=[http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2014/474219/ A Performance/Cost Evaluation for a GPU-Based Drug Discovery Application on Volunteer Computing] |journal=BioMed Research International |year=2014 |doi=10.1155/2014/474219}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Silva |first1=Cândida |title=[https://hcjournal.org/index.php/jhc/article/view/16 SOCIENTIZE participatory experiments, dissemination and networking activities in perspective] |journal=Human Computation |year=2014 |doi=10.15346/hc.v1i2.4}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Fernandez |first1=L. A. |last2=Gordillo-Guerrero |first2=A. |last3=Martin-Mayor |first3=V. |last4=Ruiz-Lorenzo |first4=J. J. |title=[https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.184428 Numerical test of the Cardy-Jacobsen conjecture in the site-diluted Potts model in three dimensions] |journal=Physical Review B |year=2012 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevB.86.184428}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Camjayi |first1=Alberto |last2=Arrachea |first2=Liliana |title=[https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.235143 Conductance of a quantum dot in the Kondo regime connected to dirty wires] |journal=Physical Review B |year=2012 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevB.86.235143}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Gracia-Lázaro |first1=Carlos |last2=Ferrer |first2=Alfredo |last3=Ruiz |first3=Gonzalo |last4=Tarancón |first4=Alfonso |last5=Cuesta |first5=José A. |last6=Sánchez |first6=Angel |last7=Moreno |first7=Yamir |title=[https://pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1206681109 Heterogeneous networks do not promote cooperation when humans play a Prisoner's Dilemma] |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |year=2012 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1206681109}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Cruz |first1=Victor L. |last2=Ramos |first2=Javier |last3=Martinez-Salazar |first3=Javier |title=[https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jp206757j Assessment of the Intrinsic Conformational Preferences of Dipeptide Amino Acids in Aqueous Solution by Combined Umbrella Sampling/MBAR Statistics. A Comparison with Experimental Results] |journal=The Journal of Physical Chemistry B |year=2012 |doi=10.1021/jp206757j}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Cruz |first1=Víctor |last2=Ramos |first2=Javier |last3=Martínez-Salazar |first3=Javier |title=[https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jp2022727 Water-Mediated Conformations of the Alanine Dipeptide as Revealed by Distributed Umbrella Sampling Simulations, Quantum Mechanics Based Calculations, and Experimental Data] |journal=The Journal of Physical Chemistry B |year=2011 |doi=10.1021/jp2022727}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Garcia |first1=Luis Isaac Ramos |last2=Almansa |first2=Julio F |title=[http://doi.wiley.com/10.1118/1.3570575 Technical Note: An algorithm to calculate the tissue phantom ratio from depth dose in radiosurgery: Calculation of the tissue phantom ratio from depth dose] |journal=Medical Physics |year=2011 |doi=10.1118/1.3570575}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Bustos |first1=A. |last2=Castejón |first2=F. |last3=Fernández |first3=L.A. |last4=García |first4=J. |last5=Martin-Mayor |first5=V. |last6=Reynolds |first6=J.M. |last7=Seki |first7=R. |last8=Velasco |first8=J.L. |title=[https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0029-5515/50/12/125007 Impact of 3D features on ion collisional transport in ITER] |journal=Nuclear Fusion |year=2010 |doi=10.1088/0029-5515/50/12/125007}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Martínez-Mendoza |first1=A. J. |last2=Méndez-Bermúdez |first2=J. A. |last3=Varga |first3=Imre |last4=Martinez-Mares |first4=Moises |last5=Moreno-Razo |first5=Jose A. |title=[http://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.3536612 Conductance statistics for the power-law banded random matrix model] |journal=CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS: IV Mexican Meeting on Experimental and Theoretical Physics: Symposium on Condensed Matter Physics |year=2010 |doi=10.1063/1.3536612}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Simões |first1=Carlos J. V. |last2=Mukherjee |first2=Trishna |last3=Brito |first3=Rui M. M. |last4=Jackson |first4=Richard M. |title=[https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ci100250z Toward the Discovery of Functional Transthyretin Amyloid Inhibitors: Application of Virtual Screening Methods] |journal=Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling |year=2010 |doi=10.1021/ci100250z}}<br />
<br />
* {{Cite journal |last1=Velasco |first1=J. L. |last2=Castejón |first2=F. |last3=Tarancón |first3=A. |title=[http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.3126583 Finite orbit width effect in ion collisional transport in TJ-II] |journal=Physics of Plasmas |year=2009 |doi=10.1063/1.3126583}}<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
* [[wikipedia:BOINC|BOINC]]<br />
* [[SiDock@home]]<br />
* [[Docking@Home]]<br />
* [[World Community Grid]]<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
== External links ==<br />
<br />
* {{URL|https://ibercivis.es/}} &mdash; Fundación Ibercivis<br />
* {{URL|https://web.archive.org/web/20200630192952/https://boinc.ibercivis.es/ibercivis/server_status.php}} &mdash; Archived BOINC server status (2020)<br />
<br />
[[Category:Completed BOINC projects]]<br />
[[Category:Multi-Application Projects]]<br />
[[Category:BOINC projects]]</div>Al Piskun