You can place your subfigure collections inside a minipage
. Each one has a number of \subcaption
s and its own \caption
. Spacing can be changed as needed.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx,subcaption}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{minipage}{.48\linewidth}
\centering
\subcaptionbox{First top left}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-a}}
\subcaptionbox{Second top left}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-b}}
\subcaptionbox{Third top left}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-c}}
\caption{Top left}
\end{minipage}\quad
\begin{minipage}{.48\linewidth}
\centering
\subcaptionbox{First top right}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-a}}
\subcaptionbox{Second top right}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-b}}
\subcaptionbox{Third top right}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-c}}
\caption{Top right}
\end{minipage}
\bigskip
\begin{minipage}{.48\linewidth}
\centering
\subcaptionbox{First bottom left}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-a}}
\subcaptionbox{Second bottom left}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-b}}
\subcaptionbox{Third bottom left}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-c}}
\caption{Bottom left}
\end{minipage}\quad
\begin{minipage}{.48\linewidth}
\centering
\subcaptionbox{First bottom right}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-a}}
\subcaptionbox{Second bottom right}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-b}}
\subcaptionbox{Third bottom right}
{\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=50pt]{example-image-c}}
\caption{Bottom right}
\end{minipage}
\end{figure}
\end{document}