Astronomers from 11 different institutions in the UK have joined forces to hunt for alien life, setting up a network to coordinate their activity.

The UK SETI Research Network will fund research that considers new ways to find extraterrestrial intelligence. The group will also buy listening time on radio telescopes.

At present, most SETI work is performed in the United States and funded by private donors. One of the coordinators of the UK's new network, Alan Penny, told the BBC that he thought there was important expertise in Britain too. "If we had one part in 200—half a percent of the money that goes into astronomy at the moment—we could make an amazing difference," he said.

The network will use Britain's eMerlin telescope array as well as the European Low Frequency Array. It's thought that data analysis techniques mean SETI work could be done without disturbing the mainstream science being performed on the telescopes.

Jodrell Bank's Tim O'Brien said: "There are billions of planets out there. It would be remiss of us not to at least have half an ear open to any signals that might be being sent to us."

You can see the original story from Wired.co.uk here.