It was established as a virtual centre to sit at the interdisciplinary boundary of planetary sciences/astronomy and biological/earth sciences investigating numerous aspects of life in the universe, specifically 'how habitable worlds form in the Universe and how life emerges, proliferates and leaves traces on these worlds' as well as engaging in work on the robotic and human exploration of space and in space ethics, philosophy and governance.
[4] It was scientific coordinator of the EU Framework 7 project MASE (Mars Analogues for Space Exploration) investigating microbial life in numerous Mars-like environments.
It set up the world's first underground astrobiology laboratory in the Boulby Underground Science Laboratory, running a program MINAR (MIne Analog Research) from 2013 which brought in international teams from NASA, ESA, India, and universities across the UK and internationally to study life in the deep subsurface and test planetary exploration equipment.
[9] The initiative hosted the NASA Spaceward Bound project and ESA astronaut training.
This led to three multi-author books published with Springer on the political philosophy of liberty beyond Earth.
[18] It led and offered the world's first massive open on-line course (MOOC) in astrobiology in 2012 with Coursera, which attracted over 150,000 students.