Most permanent members of DEQ perform their research activities in four research centres of Instituto Superior Técnico:

Center of Structural Chemistry (CQE) CQE is a Research Unit of the University of Lisbon (UL) with sites at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) and Faculdade de Ciências (FCUL). It is the largest Research Unit of Chemistry of UL, covering a broad and interdisciplinary group of areas within the scope of Chemistry. CQE general mission concerns the strengthening of the contribution of Chemistry to the welfare of Society through high-level Research, Development, Innovation, Transfer of Knowledge, Advanced Training and Teaching activities, building-up scientific and technological skills in both fundamental and oriented/applied research in science and engineering.
Center of Natural Resources and Environment (CERENA) CERENA’s mission is to develop research at the highest level of excellence related to the sustainable use of natural resources, including energy, as well as their impact on the environment. CERENA uses an approach that is simultaneously integrative, multidisciplinary and multiscale, from the molecular level to the planetary scale, where researchers from different scientific fields — earth, chemical and material engineering — converge towards the same objectives.
Center of Physics and Engineering of Advanced Materials (CeFEMA) CeFEMA is developing research involving intergroup and external collaborations in the following multidisciplinary topics: Topological Phases of Matter, Nanostructured Fluids and Soft Matter, Non-Equilibrium Matter and Processes, Energy Conversion and Storage, Advanced Materials Micro and Nanofabrication, Artificial Organs and Physics of Information and Quantum Technologies.
Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB) The Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB) is a new research unit created in 2013 at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa (UL), that aims to excel in research and advanced education in biotechnology, by responding to the challenge of exploring innovative approaches to key scientific and technological questions in Biosciences and Bioengineering and of transforming scientific knowledge into tangible innovation.