The scientific activity can be organised into (1) the main research programs, (2) joint projects, (3) R&D and custom services and (4) industrial cooperations.
The research activities of the Institute are evaluated by an International Scientific Council every second year. Whether research group continues its work at the Institute depends on the result of this evaluation.
The researchers are hired on a contract basis for two to five years at a time.
The challenges of modern biotechnology and biosciences can be met only by close interaction between researchers in different disciplines. The current research activities of the Institute are carried out in three research programmes, each consisting of several multidisciplinary groups focusing on a specific area of molecular biology, cell biology or biotechnology. The research programmes are:
Molecular genetics of microbes
Molecular neurobiology
Molecular biology of plants
Developmental biology Each programme is led by an internationally acknowledged scientist for a fixed period of time which can be extended after in-depth international scientific evaluation.
Beside the research programmes there are joint research projects with other bioscientists at the University of Helsinki. In these joint projects researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology and from departments belonging to the faculties of science or medicine have united their scientific efforts into larger research projects. The main research topics of these joint groups are:
biochemistry of carbohydrates
human molecular genetics.
Much emphasis is being placed on the development of different research methods and services based on them. The institute has the most modern facilities in the following R&D units:
NMR laboratory
Automatic DNA - sequencing
and synthesis
Protein analysis, including automatic protein
sequencing
Biocomputing
Institute has joint R&D projects with Finnish companies. The main fields of collaboration are:
biotechnology of
plants
biotechnology of dairy products
biotechnology of medical products 
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