The Schools are permanent Organic Units which ensure research, teaching and other specialised services in the respective scientific context, and they group the Departments according to related scientific and pedagogical interests.

The Schools correspond to knowledge areas traditionally grouped in Faculties. However, since they do not include the management of teaching projects, Faculties and Schools are not formally equivalents.

The Departments are permanent organisations for the creation and transmission of knowledge in the context of a discipline or group of disciplines. Hence, they represent the base cell of the scientific, pedagogic, and human and material resources management organisation in a consolidated knowledge area. They incorporate lecturers and researchers connected to the discipline or group of disciplines that define the Department, as well as the technical and administrative staff, who work in the laboratories and services on which it depends.