Bernal’s research is built around its strengths, which include competencies in key areas, multidisciplinary teams of top world-leading researchers, a culture of industry engagement and enterprise creation, agility and flexibility, and state-of-the-art facilities. Through its pre-amalgamation entities – MSSI, Stokes and the Bernal Project – Bernal has a strong legacy of both entrepreneurship, in the form of patent applications and the incubation of spinout companies, and traditional research outputs, in the form of peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals.

Efforts to harness Bernal’s research strengths led to the establishment of four research clusters. A research cluster is defined as having a critical mass of researchers, at the centre of which are leading scientists and engineers. The cluster provides a conducive mentoring and training environment for junior colleagues, postdocs and graduate students in a multidisciplinary setting.