The Jan van Eyck contains three departments: Fine art, Design and Theory. The departments are led by a team of advising researchers. The selection of individual or collective research projects is carried out per department. The artistic policy of each department is inspired by the selection of these research projects and the specific profiles of the artists, designers and theoreticians. Apart from this, each department formulates additional research projects, for which researchers can be recruited.

The departments have a great responsibility in the Jan van Eyck because the relationship to the discipline – fine art, design or theory – is considered important. The Jan van Eyck is a multi-disciplinary institute. The differences between the disciplines matter. Those differences are thought-provoking. The ways in which the various individual and collective research projects run into each other and, possibly, encroach upon each other makes for an interesting spectacle.

The Jan van Eyck offers many stimuli and platforms to deal with the differences between the disciplines. Individual and collective research projects are communicated to all researchers of all departments. Collaborations across the departments are customary. Researchers from all departments are invited to contribute to collective projects. There is also a platform for artistic discussion between all three departments: the Editorial Board. Here, the ‘big’ – individual and collective – projects are discussed by the artistic members of staff from all departments.