Nordita was originally located at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen (Denmark), but moved to the AlbaNova University Centre in Stockholm (Sweden) on 1 January 2007.

By mission, Nordita has the task of facilitating interactions between physicists in the Nordic countries as well as with the international community; therefore the comparably small institute has a large number of visitors, conferences and scientific programs that last several weeks.

Notable former or present researchers at Nordita include Alexander V. Balatsky, Holger Bech Nielsen, Axel Brandenburg, Gerald E. Brown, Paolo Di Vecchia, James Hamilton, John Hertz, Sabine Hossenfelder, Alan Luther, Ben Roy Mottelson, Christopher J. Pethick, Leon Rosenfeld, Kim Sneppen, John Wettlaufer, and Konstantin Zarembo.

Nordita is governed by a board consisting of one representative and one alternate member from each Nordic country, headed by a chair person.

The Nordita board nominates a director who is appointed by the president of KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the vice-chancellor of Stockholm University.