The Research Coordination Networks (RCNs) are a mechanism for community collaboration. Each RCN will has a steering committee comprised of the Principal Investigators of all teams who have elected to join the RCN, both from large teams selected from Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research (ICAR) solicitations as well as smaller teams from relevant NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) Research and Analysis (R&A) programs.
NASA Research Coordination Networks (RCNs)
Current NASA Research Coordination Networks
The Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS)
NExSS is dedicated to the study of planetary habitability. The goals of NExSS are to investigate the diversity of exoplanets and to learn how their history, geology, and climate interact to create the conditions for life. NExSS investigators also strive to put planets into an architectural context – as solar systems built over the eons through dynamical processes and sculpted by stars. Go Explore
The Network for Life Detection (NfoLD)
The goal of NfoLD is to promote communication, coordination, and synergy among researchers in the fields relevant to life detection. The diverse expertise needed to develop and implement strategies to search for evidence of life beyond Earth is distributed across multiple science and technology disciplines, some of which are not primarily focused on astrobiology questions. NfoLD aims to build a cohesive life detection community whose research and expertise becomes integral to all stages of astrobiology-themed solar system and exoplanet mission activity, from inception to operations. Go Explore
The Network for Ocean Worlds (NOW)
The Network for Ocean Worlds (NOW) seeks to advance comparative studies to characterize Earth and other ocean worlds across their interiors, oceans, and cryospheres; to investigate their habitability; to search for biosignatures; and to understand life—in relevant ocean world analogues and beyond. The network is designed to accelerate ocean worlds research by facilitating communication among active research teams funded across NASA divisions and by expanding community-wide engagement. Go Explore
LIFE: Early Cells to Multicellularity
LIFE: Early Cells to Multicellularity is a NASA Research Coordination Network dedicated to understanding life from early cells to multicellularity. The network brings together astrobiologists who seek the story of life’s earliest innovations, and how their consequences might be detected from afar. Go Explore
The Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments Consortium (PCE3) is a community of researchers striving to transform the origins of life community by breaking down language and ideological barriers and enhancing communication across the disciplinary divide between early earth geoscientists and prebiotic chemists. Go Explore