The school is organised into discipline groups with a strong emphasis on inter-disciplinary research and a recognition that our research cannot be divorced from the marketplace. A particular strength of the school is its ability to combine basic and enabling research to deliver new options and opportunities for ‘added value farming'. Disciplines include: Animal Science, BiometricsSA, Plant and Pest Science, Wine and Horticulture.

The Waite Campus houses the Waite Agricultural Research Institute, which was established on the site in 1924 following a bequest of Urrbrae House and 300 acres from Mr Peter Waite to the University of Adelaide. The objective of the bequest was "to advance the cause of education and more especially to promote the teaching and study of Agriculture and Forestry and allied subjects".

The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences has research and teaching roles on the Waite, Roseworthy and North Terrace Campuses of the University of Adelaide. The research interests within the School include ecology, systematics/biodiversity, ecophysiology, mineral, petroleum and environmental geoscience, solid earth geophysics, physico-chemistry and biology of soils, spatial information science, crop and pasture agronomy and land management.