E4S turns expensive supercomputers into powerful engines for discovery by giving scientists the software ecosystem they need.

Scientific discovery today depends on powerful computers—machines that can model climate change, design new medicines, improve energy systems, and simulate the behavior of stars. But just as important as the hardware are the software tools that scientists need to harness this computing power. Developing, maintaining, and making these tools widely available is the mission of the Ecosystem for Scientific Software (E4S).

What is E4S?

E4S is a curated collection of open-source software that scientists and engineers use to do large-scale computing. Think of E4S as an app store for scientific computing—but instead of games and spreadsheets, it provides reliable, tested, and interoperable tools for solving problems in physics, chemistry, biology, energy, and engineering.

  • Ecosystem means that it isn’t just one program, but many, working together.
  • Open-source means anyone can inspect, use, and contribute to the software, ensuring transparency and long-term availability.
  • Curated means the collection is tested, documented, and supported so that scientists don’t waste time hunting for or fixing software—they can focus on their research.

Why Does E4S Matter?

Without E4S, many scientific teams would need to build their own computing tools from scratch, duplicating effort and delaying discovery. By funding E4S, the U.S. ensures that:

  • Scientists can work faster. Ready-to-use tools mean less time reinventing the wheel.
  • Taxpayer investment in supercomputers is maximized. Hardware without the right software is like a laboratory without instruments.
  • The U.S. maintains leadership. Other countries are investing heavily in scientific software. E4S keeps America at the forefront of innovation.
  • Broad access is guaranteed. Because it’s open-source, universities, labs, small businesses, and even students can all benefit—not just large institutions.

A Simple Analogy

Imagine trying to build a house if every team had to design its own hammers, saws, and measuring tapes. Progress would be slow and costly. E4S provides the shared toolkit of reliable instruments that every scientific team can use, so they can focus on building new knowledge instead of tools.

Stewarding Community Software Resources

Scientific challenges—clean energy, climate resilience, national security, advanced manufacturing—depend on the ability to simulate complex systems on the world’s fastest computers. E4S makes these computers usable, productive, and accessible. With sustained investment, the U.S. preserves investments in efficiency, talent, and leadership in science and technology.

How to Access E4S Products

E4S products are accessible in many ways:

  1. Each product is directly installable using Spack.
  2. E4S has its own Spack scripts that install the full collection of products that are part of E4S. This script can be copied and pruned to suit your needs.
  3. E4S is available in containers on AWS and Google Cloud environments.
  4. E4S is available from a variety of containers including several minimal base containers that enable to you to establish a base image and install compatible versions of the products you want to use.

In all cases, products benefit from being part of E4S by participating in the integration and testing support that E4S provides. Even when using an E4S-supported product independent of E4S, you benefit from the portability testing and version compatibility that E4S efforts enhance.

© 2025 E4S Project, a Series of LF Projects, LLC. For web site terms of use, trademark policy and other project policies please see https://lfprojects.org. — Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research.