The Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona was created in 1974 to managed the courses in physics that had previously been taught by the Faculty of Sciences. It shares a building on Avinguda Diagonal with the Faculty of Chemistry, in the core university area of the city that focuses much of Barcelona's scientific teaching and dissemination infrastructure. Every year the Faculty is home to some 1,700 students across its range of courses. Its four departments cover each of the main areas of study: Electronic Engineering and Biomedics, Quantum Physics and Astrophysics, Condensed Matter Physics, and Applied Physics. It also operates the interdisciplinary research institutes ICCUB and IN2UB.

The main goal the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the University of Barcelona (IN2UB) is to coordinate and enhance multidisciplinary research among research groups from the Faculties of Chemistry, Physics, Pharmacy and Food Sciences, Biology, Earth Sciences and Medicine and Health Sciences that work on the different phenomena occurring at the nanoscale. This collaborative spirit aims at integrating both, internally and internationally, interdisciplinary activities which integrate equally, basic and applied research. IN2UB gathers around 200 researchers, organized in research groups distributed among seven major research areas.