About us

Unlocking the secrets of our brain

Mission & Position

Mission
We aim to explain how circuits of neurons enable us to see the world and act upon it.

Position

The NIN performs fundamental research into the functioning of the brain. In the longer term, this knowledge will lead to new treatments, although direct applications are also explored. As an institute for excellent fundamental research the NIN’s role is unique. The NIN supplies universities and university medical centres in the Netherlands with top researchers and with innovative and applicable knowledge that is the result of long-running research lines at the NIN. Apart from that, the Netherlands Brain Bank, the primate unit and the Netherlands Sleep Register are (inter)national facilities for researching human brain tissue, cognitive functions and sleep patterns.

Organization

The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience has seventeen research groups. They are part of the NIN community and join (group)meetings, seminars and social events. All seventeen groups are housed in the NIN buildings and use the (lab)facilities and other services provided by the NIN. The employees of fourteen groups are employed at the NIN and led by the NIN director. The employees of three groups are employed at the AMC and (formally) led by AMC management. Current director of the NIN is Pieter Roelfsema. Vice-director is Chris de Zeeuw.

The NIN aims to establish a flat management culture, in which all PIs, young talents and support staff feel free to communicate at all levels of the organization and in which all can develop their academic and technical skills and prosper.

Click here for the Organization chart

The history

1901

The Netherlands Institute for Brain Research dates back to the early 1900s. Its foundation was the result of a meeting of the International Association of Academies held in Paris in 1901

1904

This led to the formation of the International Academic Committee for Brain Research in 1904

1909

In the wake of these meetings several institutes for brain research were founded in Europe, among them, on 8 June 1909, the “Netherlands Central Institute for Brain Research”, as the institute was then called.

1909-1946

Under the inspiring leadership of its first director, Prof. dr. Cornelius Ubbo Ariëns Kappers (director from 1909 to 1946) and his successors, the institute acquired an international reputation as a centre of excellent brain research.

1972

The Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute started out in 1972, as an interuniversity institute created by the ophthalmic departments of the Dutch universities with the aim of providing them with a place to perform basic research.

1978-2005

Originally oriented towards comparative neuroanatomy, the institute, under the leadership of renowned scientists such as Prof Dick F. Swaab (director 1978-2005), further developed into a multidisciplinary centre with outstanding research facilities, such as the Netherlands Brain Bank.

2005

The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience came into being on 1 July 2005 as the result of the merger of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research and the Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute, both institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), but with very different backgrounds.