The U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine and the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) have announced the establishment of a Center of Excellence in Formal Methods and Verification, a new hub that unites scientific research, training programs for a new generation of specialists, and collaboration with the technology industry. Made possible by funding from the Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine, the center will develop formal methods and verification for application in mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence systems. 

“The Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine was founded on the belief that strengthening science is essential to Ukraine’s long-term future,” said Vaughan Turekian, executive director of the National Academies’ Office of International Networks, Cooperation, and Security. “The launch of this center of excellence reflects our commitment to building enduring scientific capacity, fostering international collaboration, and supporting Ukrainian leadership in an important emerging field.”

Formal verification is a mathematically rigorous way of checking that a program, algorithm, protocol, or mathematical proof is correct. For decades, this field required significant human effort for relatively small tasks, but rapid development of artificial intelligence has changed that. The use of modern language models has opened up new opportunities for fundamental mathematics and other critical applications in areas such as software, communication protocols, and networked systems.

“Mathematical proofs have always been the foundation of precise knowledge. Today, as AI generates ever more complex reasoning and decisions in critical systems, a new need arises — to verify their correctness with mathematical rigor,” said Yaroslav Prytula, senior vice rector at UCU. “It is precisely at this intersection of mathematics, computer science, and AI that we are building the new center at UCU.”

The center’s activity will develop around three interconnected principles: education, research, and application. The establishment of the center is a continuation of the university's existing strengths in these fields and is intended to be a home in Ukraine for the emerging discipline of formal verification.

“We wanted to support researchers where they are, and give them a means to stay in Ukraine,” said David Spergel, board co-chair of the Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine and president of Simons Foundation. “Lviv has the potential to become a European hub for innovation, and Ukraine has the opportunity to become a world leader in this space from the very beginning.”

The center is not the first collaboration between the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Ukrainian Catholic University. Annual Summer Institutes on Data Science have been active since 2023.

The Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine was established by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2024 to sustain Ukraine’s scientific capacity during the ongoing full-scale invasion and lay the groundwork for long-term recovery and economic modernization.