The Advanced Technology Institute focuses on the functional materials for electronic and photonic devices.  Here Chemists produce new materials, physicists study the electronic and optical properties, and electronic engineers work to apply them in useful devices and circuits.  Cross cutting themes include energy (in particular photovoltaics and LEDs), healthcare and information technology. The Ion Beam Centre is the UK’s national centre for research in ion beams and their applications, for example in silicon micro- and nano-electronics.

The Surrey Materials Institute concentrates on structural materials and their mechanical, structural and thermodynamic properties. In this Institute civil and chemical engineers work alongside materials scientists and physicists, on infrastructure and geotechnics, soft matter physics, interface science and engineering, surface phenomena and structural materials functionality.