The Bijvoet Centre performs research on the relation between the structure and function of biomolecules, including proteins and lipids, which play a role in biological processes such as regulation, interaction and recognition.

The Bijvoet Centre houses advanced infrastructures for the analysis of proteins and other biomolecules using NMR, X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy and mass spectrometry.

[3] The official opening of the institute was on October 27, 1989, on occasion of which a symposium was organized, with Nobel prize winner Hartmut Michel giving a keynote lecture.

[16] The Bijvoet Centre hosts a large number of both Dutch and foreign PhD, master and bachelor level students with backgrounds in Chemistry, Pharmacy, Biology, Biomedical Sciences and related fields.

[24][25][30] On November 5, 2015, Dutch state secretary Sander Dekker officially opened the new national NMR facility at the Bijvoet Centre.

Previous recipients of the Bijvoet Medal include Hartmut Michel, Matthias Mann, Nicolaas Bloembergen, Kurt Wüthrich, Ivano Bertini[33] as well as former scientific director Hans Vliegenthart.