We offer education at bachelor's, master's and PhD level, and our students work in the private business sector, public agencies, with authorities and in research.

The department hosts the Norwegian Centre of Excellence CAGE (Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate), which is a world leader in research on gas hydrates and how methane emissions affect the marine environment and the climate system. It also hosted the recently terminated petroleum centre ARCEx (Research Centre for Arctic Petroleum Exploration), a research and competence centre that investigated the interaction between the environment, technology, and hydrocarbon resources. Furthermore, the department is one of four Norwegian institutions participating in the iEarth network, a national consortium which in December 2019 was designated as a Norwegian Centre for Excellence in Education with the aim of revolutionizing geoscience education in Norway. In September 2022, the department was awarded a new Norwegian Centre of Excellence: iC3 (Centre for Ice, Cryosphere, Carbon, and Climate), which will investigate the role of the large ice sheets in the global carbon budget. The Department of Geosciences will lead iC3 in close collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Institute and NORCE.

We have numerous research projects funded by the Research Council of Norway, the EU, as well as various private and public sources. The department has an extensive geological laboratory with state-of-the-art instruments that carry out analyses for students, researchers, and external clients.