Is dedicated to complex fundamental problems that fall largely into four research domains, namely quantitative biology, evolutionary biology, cell and developmental biology, and immunobiology. Modelling, quantitative biology and evolution are the conceptual substrate of the IGC, and influence thinking at the IGC in many ways.

The Research Unit Team consists of 12 Research groups, each a cluster of 3 (or more) autonomous labs with sizes ranging from 3 to 15 lab members. The Research Units established in 2015 replaced the former ‘Laboratórios Associados’, also funded by the FCT.

The Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência was part of the Laboratorio Associado ITQB (LA-ITQB) along with three other institutes of the Oeiras Campus: the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB), the Instituto de Biologia Experimental (IBET), and the Centro de Estudos de Doenças Crónicas (CEDOC-UNL).