CFP

FMCAD 2026: Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design 2026

Graz, Austria, September 16-18, 2026

Conference website	https://fmcad.org/FMCAD26/
Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fmcad2026
Abstract registration deadline	April 26, 2026
Submission deadline	May 3, 2026

Topics: formal methods decision procedures computer aided design hardware and software verification

We are pleased to invite you to submit papers for the 26th Conference on Formal Methods in Computer Aided Design (FMCAD 2026).

FMCAD 2026 is the twenty-sixth in a series of conferences on the theory and applications of formal methods in hardware and system verification. FMCAD provides a leading forum to researchers in academia and industry for presenting and discussing groundbreaking methods, technologies, theoretical results, and tools for reasoning formally about computing systems. FMCAD covers formal aspects of computer-aided system design including verification, specification, synthesis, and testing.

Dates

Abstract Submission: April 26, 2026
Paper Submission: May 3, 2026
Author Response: June 15, 2026
Author Notification: June 28, 2026
Student Forum Abstract Submission: June 16, 2026
Student Forum Submission: June 22, 2026
Student Forum Notification: July 14, 2026
Camera-Ready Submission: July 18, 2026

All deadlines are anywhere on Earth.

Submission Guidelines

The following paper categories are welcome:

Regular Papers

Regular papers are expected to offer novel foundational ideas, theoretical results, or algorithmic improvements to existing methods, along with experimental impact validation where applicable.
Length: 8 pages (long) or 4 pages (short), excluding references.

Tool and Case Study Papers

Tool & Case Study papers are expected to report on the design, implementation or use of verification (or related) technology in a practically relevant context (which need not be industrial), and its impact on design processes.
Length: 8 pages (long) or 4 pages (short), excluding references.

Submissions must be made electronically in PDF format via Easychair.

Both Regular and Tool & Case study papers must use the IEEE Transactions format on letter-size paper with a 10-point font size; preferably, use the FMCAD template for papers. Papers in both categories can be either 8 pages (long) or 4 pages (short) in length excluding references. Short papers that describe emerging results, practical experiences, or original ideas that can be described succinctly are encouraged. Authors will be required to select an appropriate paper category at abstract submission time. Submissions may contain an optional appendix, which will not appear in the final version of the paper. The reviewers should be able to assess the quality and the relevance of the results in the paper without reading the appendix.

Submissions in all categories must contain original research that has not been previously published, nor is concurrently submitted for publication. Any partial overlap with published or concurrently submitted papers must be clearly indicated.

FMCAD employs a rigorous peer-review process and each submission will be reviewed by at least four members of the program committee. The review process is single-blind. The review process will incorporate a feedback and rebuttal period during which authors will have the opportunity to formally respond to reviewer comments.

Accepted papers are published by TU Wien Academic Press under a Creative Commons license (the authors retain the copyright) and distributed through the IEEE XPlore digital library. IEEE CEDA is a technical co-sponsor of FMCAD. There are no publication fees. Authors of accepted contributions will be required to sign the FMCAD copyright transfer form found here: https://fmcad.or.at/pdf/copyright.pdf. For each accepted paper, at least one unique author must register for the conference. Moreover, authors of accepted papers ensure that at least one of them will attend the conference and present the work.

New - Artifact Evaluation

FMCAD 2026 introduces optional artifact evaluation to enhance transparency and the usability of research outcomes. Authors reporting experimental results are strongly encouraged to publish their final data in a long-term repository (e.g. zenodo). With artifacts serving as supplementary evidence, high-quality artifacts can improve the likelihood of paper acceptance. Artifact evaluation will be integrated into the main review process, with one selected program committee member assessing the quality of the artifact alongside the paper. Accepted artifacts require a DOI and will be clearly identified in the published paper. Details on artifact evaluation are available on the artifacts page.

Objectives and Scope

FMCAD welcomes submission of papers reporting original research on advances in all aspects of formal methods and their applications to computer-aided design.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

Model checking, theorem proving, equivalence checking, abstraction and reduction, compositional methods, decision procedures at the bit- and word-level, probabilistic methods, combinations of deductive methods and decision procedures.
Synthesis and compilation for computer system descriptions, modeling, specification, and implementation languages, formal semantics of languages and their subsets, model-based design, design derivation and transformation, correct-by-construction methods.
Application of formal and semi-formal methods to functional and non-functional specification and validation of hardware and software, including timing and power modeling, verification of computing systems on all levels of abstraction, system-level design and verification for embedded systems, cyber-physical systems, automotive systems and other safety-critical systems, hardware-software co-design and verification, and transaction-level verification.
Experience with the application of formal and semi-formal methods to industrial-scale designs; tools that represent formal verification enablement, new features, or a substantial improvement in the automation of formal methods.
Application of formal methods to verifying safety, connectivity and security properties of networks, distributed systems, smart contracts, block chains, and IoT devices.
Formal verification of data-driven AI systems, addressing safety, robustness to adversarial inputs, reliability, fairness, and compliance with regulatory requirements.
Applications of machine learning, especially generative AI, to enhance formal methods techniques, including invariant and specification inference, learning-based heuristics for verification and synthesis, and data-driven verification workflows.

Organiziation

Program Chairs

Bruno Dutertre (Amazon)
Bettina Könighofer (Graz University of Technology, Austria)

Publication Chair

Georg Weissenbacher (Technische Universität Wien, Austria)

Web Chair

Stefan Pranger (Graz University of Technology, Austria)

Publicity Chair

Martin Tappler (Technische Universität Wien, Austria)

Venue

The conference will be held at Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria.

Contact

For any questions, please contact the Program Chairs.