The International Big History Association (IBHA) is an organization dedicated to promoting the study and teaching of Big History—an interdisciplinary field that examines the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present, integrating insights from cosmology, geology, biology, anthropology, and human history. Big History seeks to understand the integrated history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity, using the best available empirical evidence and scholarly methods.

The Breakthrough Initiatives is an ambitious program created with the aim of searching for extraterrestrial life and exploring outer space. Founded in 2015 by Julia and Yuri Milner, it includes several key areas, each of which is aimed at expanding our understanding of the universe and the possibility of life beyond Earth. Breakthrough Initiatives brings together scientists, engineers, and researchers from around the world seeking to answer one of humanity’s biggest questions: Is there life beyond our planet?

The Institute began small, with just one project – NASA’s SETI program – and two employees, founder Tom Pierson (a former grants administrator at San Francisco State University), and astronomer Jill Tarter. Over the years, other research disciplines have been added to the Institute’s portfolio, all unified by their relevance to the search for, and understanding of, life beyond Earth. Today, the Institute has approximately 100 scientists as well as specialists in administration, education, and outreach.

In 1980, Carl Sagan, Louis Friedman, and Bruce Murray founded The Planetary Society. They saw enormous public interest in space that was not reflected by government investment, as NASA’s budget was cut again and again. They established The Planetary Society to give anyone from anywhere in the world an active role in advancing space exploration.

Today, The Planetary Society continues this work  as the world’s largest and most influential non-profit space organization. The organization is registered 501(c)3 non-profit and engages a global community of more than 2 million space enthusiasts

The Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center is dedicated to advancing the search for extraterrestrial, technological life in the universe, via their technosignatures. The PSETI Center is a member of the Consortium for Planetary and Exoplanetary Science and Technology and is hosted by the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics in the Eberly College of Science.

The search for technosignatures is a broad, encompassing much of astronomy. It includes searches for communicative signals from other stars across and beyond the electromagnetic spectrum, searches for artifacts in and beyond the solar system, and other detectable evidence for technological life beyond the Earth.

The PSETI Center engages in research, training, outreach and education.