The research projects in Biocenter Oulu are selected for 4-year periods through an international evaluation on the basis of their research plans and scientific accomplishments. The research topics are not restricted.

Currently there are 10 research projects, 3 Junior Investigators' and 6 Coordinators' projects. The topics range from studying the regulation of normal development to determining the molecular determinants in various pathological conditions such as metabolic syndrome, cancer, or hypoxia-related diseases, and from the structure and functional properties of proteins to evolutionary genomics in plants.

Research groups of Biocenter Oulu have significant outside competitive funding and belong to e.g. the Finnish Centre of Excellence Programme funded by the Academy of Finland (Centre of Excellence Grant 2012 - 2017, 251314) and the Nordic Centre of Excellence Programme funded by the NordForsk.