News

A new project, led by Dr Alessandra Marino, has received a grant with a value of £1.245m from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to trial an integrated governance approach to protect the Moon and its sites of interest. MoonRISE: Re‑Imagining Space Environments brings together a range of scholars from different disciplines to answer a pressing question: how do we safeguard the Moon at a time of intensified exploration?

Two new research papers are offering insights into both the search for life beyond the Earth and the future of human activity on the Moon.

Open University researchers are leading international advances in planetary protection, helping ensure that space exploration is safe, sustainable, and scientifically rigorous. Their research is featured in a new thematic issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A which brings together the latest international perspectives on preventing contamination in space and safeguarding Earth from extraterrestrial material.

We are thrilled that we have two new members of the team Shunsuke Nozaki (visiting PhD student) and Oliver Pattle (PhD student).

The Open University (OU) is proud to announce its inclusion in the National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) consortium as part of NBIC’s sixth accession round. This milestone sees 10 new UK universities and research institutions join NBIC’s growing network, reinforcing the UK’s position as a global leader in biofilm research and innovation.

We are excited to share the release of our 2024-2025 Annual Report! 

It's been an incredible year and we cannot wait to see what 2026 will bring.

Four PhD vacancies are now open in AstrobiologyOU for October 2026 start.

These project are offered via the Central England NERC Training Alliance (CENTA).

You can find more information about the projects and how to apply on our 'PhDs' webpage, or on the CENTA website.

Come and work with us!

We’re proud to announce our Director, Prof Karen Olsson-Francis, has been elected President of the European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA).

Since its founding in 2001, EANA has coordinated astrobiology research in Europe, bringing together researchers from multiple disciplines.

We are excited to have officially opened the new Icy Worlds Laboratory here as part of AstrobiologyOU! In this lab, we will conduct experiments at extremely low temperatures to help understand processes at our Solar System's icy worlds including Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus. 

A major focus of the team's work is on how liquid water originating from the deep subsurface oceans of these worlds is transformed as it freezes, and how any dissolved salts or organic compounds might be affected by this process.