NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research

The NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is a collaborative framework that NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices that support research on the nervous system. By pooling resources and expertise, Blueprint identifies cross-cutting areas of research and confronts challenges too large for any single Institute or Center. Since its inception in 2004, Blueprint has supported the development of new research initiatives, training opportunities, and tools and resources to assist the neuroscience community. **Mission** The NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research aims to accelerate transformative discoveries in brain function in health, aging, and disease. **Mission and Goals** NIH's mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. The goals of the agency are: - to foster fundamental creative discoveries, innovative research strategies, and their applications as a basis for ultimately protecting and improving health; - to develop, maintain, and renew scientific human and physical resources that will ensure the Nation's capability to prevent disease; - to expand the knowledge base in medical and associated sciences in order to enhance the Nation's economic well-being and ensure a continued high return on the public investment in research; and - to exemplify and promote the highest level of scientific integrity, public accountability, and social responsibility in the conduct of science. In realizing these goals, the NIH provides leadership and direction to programs designed to improve the health of the Nation by conducting and supporting research: - in the causes, diagnosis, prevention, and cure of human diseases; - in the processes of human growth and development; - in the biological effects of environmental contaminants; - in the understanding of mental, addictive and physical disorders; and - in directing programs for the collection, dissemination, and exchange of information in medicine and health, including the development and support of medical libraries and the training of medical librarians and other health information specialists.