Research is the heart of Chemical science development. Research in the department is performed to help develop science and assist UGM in pursuing its vision to become Research University recognized internationally. To improve the quality of research and to disseminate research outputs, Chem-UGM conducts seminars once in a year organized by staff and students.

During the academic year of 2000-2005 there were around 91 titles of research funded, and most of the research were funded by Directorate General for Higher Education (DGHE), through Hibah Bersaing (HB), Penelitian Dasar (PD), QUE Research Grant Project and Uber HKI (PATEN), Hibah Pekerti and by Ministry of Research and Technology, Republic of Indonesia through Riset Unggulan Terpadu (RUT), Riset Unggulan Kemitraan (RUK) dan Riset Unggulan Terpadu International (RUTI, 2 titles).  Other research funding institutions are Toray, Hitachi Foundation and IFS (Sweden), Pertamina, PT. Indesso Aroma and Pemda Malang.

During the past five years, with support from QUE project from Directorate General for Higher Education (DGHE)-Ministry of National Education, Chem-UGM has tried consistently to implement its vision and mission. As a result, Chem-UGM has remarkable human resources, well-equipped laboratories and has become a center of excellence in teaching and research in Chemistry. Such resources are important factors to assure the quality of learning process that lead to the production of graduates with global competitiveness. Furthermore, an international publication has been one of Chem-UGM goals for sharing research results. In average, there are at least 5 international papers published yearly by Chem-UGM staff. Such a good research environment supported with a quality of human and non-human resources is an important factor to assure the excellent quality of the graduates. Since last year, the department has received the SP4 grant from DGHE for a development of basic Chemistry course and basic Chemistry laboratory.