The Imperial School of Alchemy, Astronomy and Science
This organisation grew out of the earliest days of the Empire. As money was channelled into state-sponsored magic user sects, the brief of such organisations was widened. The Imperial Academy of Magic was formed by wizards to allow magic to be researched, but the quest for knowledge in all forms was something the Empire was beginning to embrace; science was already being researched and studied by individuals and a separate organisation was a logical progression from that.
Alchemy was the first of the 'sciences' to be studied. The School has provided many interesting uses for compounds and herbs of all kinds. There have been wide diversions in the work of the school too - some have studied philosophy or furthered understanding of mathematics. Some of knowledge learned from these studies fed back into the world of magic, and helped wizards understand their own field far better.
Aside from the research, the school also works with the Imperial Library to allow scientific discoveries to be made public. It has a mechanism that allows a written explanations of scientific research to be published, the scribes of the Library can produce copies that flow quickly across the six kingdoms of the former Empire.