Posted by ETH Zurich and the SETI Institute have announced a strategic partnership aimed at advancing research into one of science’s most fundamental questions: how life originates and how common it may be throughout the universe.
At the center of the collaboration is a new assistant professorship in Earth and Planetary Evolution, based in ETH Zurich’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. The position will also play an important role within ETH’s Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life (COPL), established in 2022.
Research associated with the professorship will connect Earth science, planetary science, astrobiology, and related disciplines. Areas of investigation may include biosignatures, planetary habitability, habitable environments, and the long-term co-evolution of life and planetary conditions on Earth and on worlds beyond the Solar System. The SETI Institute will provide $8.5 million in start-up funding over ten years. The support will help establish the professorship and fund associated research positions, including a research scientist and postdoctoral researchers.
ETH Zurich President Joël Mesot described the partnership as an opportunity to strengthen interdisciplinary and international collaboration. COPL director and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Didier Queloz emphasized that both institutions share the goal of understanding the origin and prevalence of life in the universe. For the SETI Institute, the agreement represents its first international research partnership of this kind. President and CEO Bill Diamond said the collaboration reflects the increasingly global nature of the search for life beyond Earth and could provide a model for future international scientific partnerships. By combining ETH Zurich’s expertise in Earth and planetary sciences with the SETI Institute’s long-standing work in astrobiology and the search for life, the partnership aims to create lasting research capacity and strengthen connections between scientific communities in Europe and the United States.
The new professorship was advertised on August 28, 2026, marking the first major step in developing the collaboration.
For more details, read the full article by SETI Institute.
