[9] To help coordinate efforts to sift through and understand the data, NASA needed a way for researchers to collaborate across disciplines.

The success of the Virtual Planetary Laboratory research network at the University of Washington led Mary A. Voytek, director of the NASA Astrobiology Program, to model its structure and create the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) initiative.

[12] The US teams were initially selected from a total of about 200 proposals; however, the coalition is expected to expand nationally and internationally as the project gets underway.

[13] Teams will also work with amateur citizen scientists who will have the ability to access the public Kepler data and search for exoplanets.

[2] NExSS research will directly contribute to understanding and interpreting future exoplanet data from the upcoming launches of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and James Webb Space Telescope, as well as the planned Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission.