We are a world-class research institute with more than 250 scientists and scientific collaborators covering a wide range of disciplines from biology to geology, oceanography to taxonomy and palaeontology to ecology. For their research, scientists and researchers often make use of our vast collections which contain almost 38 million specimens. They support national and international decision-makers with their scientific expertise and regularly publish scientific articles and reports.

Our scientific staff are divided into three operational directorates and one scientific service: the OD Earth and History of Life, the OD Natural Environment, the OD Taxonomy and Phylogeny, and the Scientific Heritage Service, which is also responsible for the library.