The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astrobiology Institute (NAI) represents a partnership between NASA, universities, and research organizations to promote, conduct and lead integrated multidisiplinary research, to train young scientists, and to provide public access to the adventure of studying the living universe.

The NAI's core membership began in 1997 with eleven core members and numerous affiliated organizations. After a highly competitive peer-review process in March 2001, NASA selected four additional team members bringing the core members to a total of fifteen. The NAI also partners internationally and currently includes four associate institutions in Australia, Spain, France and the UK.

The NAI coordinates and integrates the cross-disciplinary investigations fundamental to the field of Astrobiology. The Institute's major goals are:

• To conduct ground-breaking, fundamental research in the field of Astrobiology
  
  
• To help establish astrobiology science strategies for NASA missions
  
  
• To develop requirements for new ground- and space-based technologies to support these future missions
  
  
• To help develop the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists in this emerging field of astrobiology.

NASA's initiative in Astrobiology is a broad science effort embracing basic research, technology development, and access to space flight missions. In July 1988 a 3-day workshop was held at NASA Ames Research Center to define the discipline of astrobiology in terms of its scientific potential. More than 150 scientists and technologists, spanning a broad range of disciplines and organizations, participated.

What was developed from this workshop is now known as the Astrobiology Roadmap. The Roadmap provides guidance for research and technology development across several NASA enterprises: Space Science, Earth Science, and the Human Exploration and Development of Space. The recommendations are formulated in terms of 10 long-term science goals and 17 more specific science objectives, which will be translated into NASA programs and integrated with NASA strategic planning.

— The NAI (a national consortium of scientists focused on interdisciplinary research) is managed by the Ames Research Center at Moffet Field in California. Ames is a NASA field center and is recognized as a "Center of Excellence" for Information Technology and Astrobiology.