Since its constitution, the Polymer Science and Technology Department is a reference in the research of polymeric materials. Many of the Departmental members were involved during the eighties and nineties in a series of activities in collaboration with industry that crystallized in the Institute of Polymeric Materials (POLYMAT). Currently, both the aforementioned Institute and the Basque Center for Macromolecular Design and Engineering are grouped together under the trademark Polymat.

The Materials Physics Department is well recognized because its strong activity in several fields of the Material Physics field.
This activity has catalyzed the creation of new research centers in the neighborhood, namely the "Donostia International Physics Center" (DIPC) foundation, the Material Physics Center (joint Center between the Spanish Research Council and the University of the Basque Country) and more recently the nanoscience Cooperative Research Center "CIC nanogune".