The Bristol Glaciology Centre comprises five full-time faculty from the School of Geographical Sciences: Professor Jonathan Bamber (Director), Dr Jack Landy, Professor Tony Payne, Professor Jemma Wadham and Dr Chris Williamson. A number of Research Assistants and Associates work with the faculty, mainly funded by grants from the UK Research Councils and the European Commission, together with Research Students supported by the UK Research Council and the EU Marie Sklowdowska Curie Actions program. In addition, collaborative projects are undertaken with affiliated academic staff and research students from other Bristol departments within the structure of the University Research Centre.

The approach of Centre staff is broad in terms of both the scientific methods of investigation used and the geographical areas studies. Glaciological problems usually require multi-disciplinary solutions, and approaches using a combination of field investigation, remote sensing (from ships, aircraft and satellites), field and laboratory biogeochemical/microbiological measurements and numerical modelling are typical. Current studies are taking place on glaciers and larger ice masses from Antarctica to Greenland, Svalbard to the European Alps.