The Institute houses groups funded through the University and the Medical Research Council (MRC).   The University groups are members of the Nuffield Departments of Clinical Medicine (NDM) and Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NDCLS), Medical Oncology and the Departments of Paediatrics and Clinical Neurology.  There are two MRC Units, the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit and the MRC Human Immunology Unit; the Units have links to NDCLS and NDM respectively.  The University Department of Medical Oncology has eleven research groups  based in the WIMM and comprises the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Oxford Cancer Centre at the Institute with  the CRUK Pathology Research Group in the NDCLS.  The Medical Oncology Department has a Phase I/II Research Unit at the Churchill Hospital, with 8 beds dedicated for research, integrated with the NHS.  Additional infrastructure support for specialized research assays in trials is provided at both sites via the Experimental Cancer Centre Programme, funded jointly by  CRUK and NHS.

Within this administrative structure there are forty independent groups, all of which are attached to a clinical department and are responsible for raising their own research funding.  In addition, there is a core administrative service, which is based in the Institute, which maintains the high quality environment.  The groups remain in the building so long as their research is productive and attracting support.  The research teams are independent and remain attached academically to their parent clinical departments.  In this way the Institute has successfully encouraged close integration of basic and clinical scientists generating a critical mass of scientific expertise and facilities that has attracted both non-clinical scientists and young clinicians who wish to train in this new field and tackle problems of particular interest to their parent departments.