SiDock@home is an international citizen-science and open-science project that uses volunteer
computers for computational drug discovery. Its first mission supported the search for new active
compounds against SARS-CoV-2. The project is based on BOINC, which allows volunteers to
donate unused computing power from personal computers. This computing power is used for
molecular docking, a method that estimates how well small molecules may bind to biological
targets such as viral proteins. SiDock@home grew from the earlier COVID.SI initiative and later
adopted CmDock, an open-source docking program derived from the rDock/RxDock family. Scientifically, the project screens very large molecular libraries and reduces them to smaller sets of compounds for further study. Socially, it shows how citizens can contribute to authentic com-
putational chemistry research without specialist training. The project therefore connects drug
discovery, open-source software, volunteer computing, public engagement, and education.