Research – Organisational Set-up

Basic units

Research and teaching in the Faculty of Science takes place within basic units called professorial groups. There are around 100 such groups in the Faculty, spread across the six different departments. 

Research institutes

A professorial group typically works alongside other groups that are interested in the same theme, forming a research institute. The professorial groups may come from different departments within a faculty, or even from different faculties, so that together, they are able to research different aspects of a theme. Each research institute offers at least one Master’s programme and one PhD programme.

Focus areas

Utrecht University has selected its best research themes to establish 15, often multi-disciplinary, research focus areas. Research conducted at the Faculty of Science covers seven of these areas, with each research institute within the Faculty making contributions in at least one area. 

Collaborative links

Thanks to the organisational set-up of Utrecht University’s research, our professorial groups and our research institutes have a high number of dynamic collaborative links with other research groups from both science and industry, and at a national and international level. More information.