  In this white paper, we recommend the European Space Agency plays a proactive
role in developing a global collaborative effort to construct a large
high-contrast imaging space telescope, e.g. as currently under study by NASA.
Such a mission will be needed to characterize a sizable sample of temperate
Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of nearby Sun-like stars and to
search for extraterrestrial biological activity. We provide an overview of
relevant European expertise, and advocate ESA to start a technology development
program towards detecting life outside the Solar system.
