The National Institute of Chemistry (NIC) has 374 employees, of which around 331 carry out research work in 9 departments and two infrastructure centers. Basic and applied research are oriented towards fields which are of long-term importance to both Slovenia and the world: materials research, life sciences, biotechnology, chemical engineering, structural and theoretical chemistry, analytical chemistry and environmental protection; through which the institute is in line with the needs of the domestic and foreign pharmaceutical, chemical, automotive and nanobiotechnological industries.

The work of the Institute is also in line with the priority thematic areas of the EU Research and Innovation programme Horizon Europe, which places an emphasis on nanotechnology, genomics and biotechnology for health, climate change, energy, sustainable development and global change and quality and safety of food. Currently 74 graduate students are being trained at the Institute within the national Young Researchers Program for the acquisition of their PhD degrees. The Institute offers high-level research equipment, allowing researchers to engage in even the most cutting-edge research challenges at the world level. Some acquisitions are: a Karl Zeiss Supra 35 VP Electronic Microscope with EDX analysis, a high-resolution powder x-ray diffractometer, and an 800 MHz NMR spectrometer; these are the only ones of their kind in Slovenia. The NMR spectrometer is the first of this kind of instrument to be found in the new member states of EU and represents one of the largest investments in a free-standing piece of research equipment in Slovenia.

The National Institute of Chemistry was the first research institution in Slovenia to obtain ISO 9001 standards in December 2003 with the goal of improving the conditions, as well as organization and effectiveness, of its work. The National Institute of Chemistry is 1 of the 3 original founding partners of the Slovenian Strategic Research and Innovation Partnership (SRIP) Networks for the Transition into Circular Economy (https://srip-circular-economy.eu/), which is a cluster-like national stakeholder in the field of circular economy implementation. 

Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering (https://www.ki.si/en/departments/d13-department-of-catalysis-and-chemical-reaction-engineering/) is primarily invested in chemical (process) engineering, reactor and unit operation design and construction, as well as multi-scale process modeling. The Department topics foremost include carbon dioxide and natural gas conversion, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, biomass valorization to bio-based compounds, and (bio)pharmaceutical processes. The department is one of the best in the field of multi-scale process modeling, applying the chemical engineering methodologies of traditional fossil refining to bio-refining, simulating from the scale of atoms to process.