The Institute of Neuroscience consists of twenty-six faculty members from five academic departments. They conduct grant-supported research and train graduate students and postdoctoral associates in five distinct but overlapping affinity groups. These informal groups focus on research issues of mutual interest at various biological levels and include cellular neuroscience, developmental biology, excitable systems, neural plasticity, and cognitive neuroscience.

The Institute of Neuroscience is centered in Huestis and Streisinger Halls, which house most of the research laboratories for neuroscience and developmental genetics research at the University of Oregon. These laboratories are part of the university's science complex, which includes the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Computer and Information Science, Geological Sciences, Physics, and interdisciplinary institutes in theoretical science, molecular biology, cognitive science, chemical physics, and materials science. Although the research institutes at the UO, including the Institute of Neuroscience, evolved as independent and autonomous research groups, they are closely allied--scientifically and intellectually--with each other and other academic departments.