Most of the research projects of the Department of Physics of the University of Madeira (UMa) are in the field of Physics of Low-Temperature Plasmas, which is the area of excellence of the Department. The majority of the teaching and research staff are members of the Research Node at UMa of Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (IPFN) of Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, and constitute the High-Pressure Plasmas Group of IPFN.
Another research area of the Department is Medical Physics.