Future of COIN-OR

17 December 2021

The COIN-OR Foundation is seeking support to continue providing open-source optimization software for the operations research community. They have published an article, Future of COIN-OR, describing their challenges in securing funding and the participation of community members to continue operating.

COIN-OR are responsible for the development of more than 70 projects that are widely used in optimization tools, including:

• Pyomo, a Python-based optimization modeling language.
• PuLP, a Python library for linear optimization.
• CBC, the default mixed integer linear programming solver used in OpenSolver and elsewhere.
• Bonmin and Couenne, non-linear mixed integer programming solvers.

The COIN-OR Foundation presents three possible future directions:

Option 1: Wind down the COIN-OR Foundation activities related to maintenance and development of common infrastructure and existing codes that are not otherwise maintained.

Option 2: Continue operating in a haphazard fashion and hope that the community will eventually take up the cause as things slowly degrade.

Option 3: Find a path to funding the current activities of the COIN-OR Foundation in a sustainable way.

To achieve Option 3, the Foundation needs your support. You can either donate to COIN-OR, or email them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to discuss how you can help.