The INC's main goal is the development of short-lived, labelled radiotracers for biomedical applications primarily in physiological and pharmaceutical brain research. All scientific activities are of a medium- to long-term nature and are carried out by three groups.

New, medically relevant radionuclides are being developed for the different applications and nuclear reaction data determined by radiochemical methods. Competent know-how on radionuclide production also requires knowledge of theoretically relevant fundamentals of nuclear chemistry. The availability of the four accelerators of Research Centre Jülich represents a necessary basis for such work.

Radiopharmaceutical research also comprises the investigation, new or further development of no-carrier-added labelling methods for new radionuclides as a basis for the development of radiotracers primarily for emission tomography. Priority is given to ligands of serotonergic, glutaminergic and adenosinergic receptors and synaptic resumption transporters as well as inhibitors of regulatory enzymes of the brain.

In the field of radiopharmacology, the newly developed or modified radiotracers are evaluated with a view to the respective (patho)physiological processes of relevance in a joint programme with the Institute of Medicine (IME) of Research Centre Jülich. Adequate preclinical testing and evaluation methods are being developed for short-lived tracers.

The radiopharmaceuticals developed are also made available to external hospitals by a service group. This cooperation as well as contacts with the pharmaceutical industry ensure a broad-based and rapid practical application of the radiopharmaceuticals developed.