CfAI is one of the major research groups in the Physics Department at Durham with approximately 50 staff and research students. It is distributed across two physical locations, one of which is in the Department of Physics Rochester Building on the University science site in Durham, and the other in the NetPark Research Institute about ten miles away near Sedgefield.

CfAI develops state-of-the-art instruments for application across a wide range of disciplines including astronomical instrumentation, biophysics, remote sensing and fusion diagnostics.