It has come to the attention of the Astrobiology Society of Britain (ASB) that there is woefully-inadequate information available on the level of research and teaching activity within Britain. Many groups are moving into the broad area of research that has come to be known as astrobiology, dedicated interdisciplinary departments are being founded, and more and more lecture courses are being organised for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Tracking this exciting growth is difficult, however, and the majority of researchers are unaware of the full extent of astrobiological investigation or teaching at other universities through England, Scotland, Wales and R.O.I. Such statistics are available for the US, but the combined British effort remains largely undocumented. The purpose of this ASB study is to collect exactly this information, helping to link all these research and teaching efforts into a robust astrobiological network in Britain.

Data of this kind will only be meaningful if they are truly representative of the whole field, and so we urge you to provide as much detail on this questionnaire as you can, pass it on to other research groups in your university and forward it to colleagues elsewhere. Collated statistics demonstrating the significance and growth of astrobiology will be useful to all of us; in grant applications, for example. We intend to compile a report for journal publication and also a piece in the popular media, and so any information you provide will help raise the profile of your research group or instituti on. Institutions that respond will be automatically included in the recipient list for the summary report of statistics compiled from this study.

For this particular questionnaire, 'astrobiology' is taken to include all research undertaken in the interests of understanding the conditions and processes involved in the emergence of life on Earth, requirements for its persistence, and assessing the possibility of life, extant or extinct, on extraterrestrial locations within the solar system or extrasolar planetary systems; thereby including aspects of astronomy, astrophysical modelling, astrochemistry, prebiotic chemistry, extremophile microbiology, biogeochemistry, biosignatures, comparative planetology, probe mission design, and so on… This definition is left deliberately broad to allow researchers to classify their work as astrobiological if they choose to consider it so.

We are also very interested in discovering the extent of astrobiology teaching now being offered across Britain. This includes everything from a dedicated Masters programme to a few lectures embedded within a more traditional undergraduate degree course, such as geology or astronomy.

Even if your university does not currently conduct any astrobiology research or teaching, returning this questionnaire in the negative would be greatly valuable. If you feel unable to answer for all the efforts across your university, please forward this questionnaire to separate groups and we will collate the information returned on different forms. If you are pushed for time please answer whichever questions you can – it'd be much more useful to receive forms with blank spaces than no information at all. Additional questionnaires can be downloaded in .doc or .pdf formats from http://www.astrobiologysociety.org.

Completed questionnaires can be returned as a Word document by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or posting a hard copy to:

The very issue this questionnaire aims to address – the lack of collated information on the extent of astrobiology activities in Britain – means that a complete distribution list for all relevant parties does not yet exist. Therefore, we would very much appreciate it if you could also forward this questionnaire on to any other astrobiology researchers you know so that we can achieve as complete coverage as possible and hopefully gather some truly representative statistics. We also believe that creating a database of researchers involved in astrobiology will be enormously useful for all concerned, but we will only publish your contact details if you consent to this on the questionnaire.

If your institution does not yet run a formal teaching or research programme, but you have an interest in astrobiology and the prospects of life beyond Earth, you may like to join the Astrobiology Society of Britain to keep up to date with the latest news and our attend our biennial conference (details at end the end of this questionnaire).