The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease for all people.

To accomplish this goal, the Institute supports and conducts basic, translational, and clinical research on the healthy and diseased nervous system; fosters the training of investigators in the basic and clinical neurosciences; and seeks better understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders.

The Institute's extramural program supports thousands of research project grants at institutions across the country. Institutional training grants and individual fellowships support hundreds of scientists in training and provide career awards that offer a range of research experience and support for faculty members at various levels. Scientists in the Institute's laboratories and clinics in Bethesda, Maryland, conduct research in the major areas of neuroscience and on many of the most important and challenging neurological disorders. NINDS staff researchers also collaborate with scientists in several other NIH Institutes.

This is a time of accelerating progress and increasing hope in the battle against brain disease. Advances in understanding the nervous system are beginning to pay off in the form of treatments for previously intractable problems such as spinal cord injury, acute stroke, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and Parkinson's disease, to name a few.

The NINDS vision is:

• To lead the neuroscience community in shaping the future of research and its relationship to brain diseases.
• To build an intramural program that is the model for modern collaborative neuroscience research.
• To develop the next generation of basic and clinical neuroscientists through inspiration and resource support.
• To seize opportunities to focus our resources to rapidly translate scientific discoveries into prevention, treatment, and cures.
• To be the first place the public turns to for authoritative neuroscience research information.