RESEARCH. The IN has contributed throughout its trajectory to many key discoveries presented in publications in internationally prestigious journals with high scientific impact. Thanks to the scientific talent and the quality of their projects, our researchers obtain a high degree of competitive funding that allows us, as an institute, to maintain technologically advanced research support services. The joint participation in the calls for infrastructure, articulating needs and efforts, have served to incorporate the most modern techniques and technologies into the Center, which allow our researchers to carry out the most advanced experiments and progress in the knowledge of the brain on equal terms with our
European and American colleagues. The repercussion of a better understanding of the brain in the construction of the society of the future is enormous. Neuroscience is called to modify human attitudes and customs towards higher levels of well-being, as well as improve adaptation to the new circumstances that humanity faces. The IN aspires to contribute to this task.
We have an external Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) that evaluates our scientific production and advises on the research activity and strategies of the Institute. Our current SAB is chaired by Carmen Sandi (EPEL, Switzerland) and includes Alain Chédotal (Vision Institute, París), María Blasco (CNIO, Spain), Magdalena Götz (MCN, Germany), Cornelius Gross (EMBL,Rome) and Michael Häusser (UCL, UK).
The IN researchers are not only committed to the challenge of understanding how the brain works; the research of many groups has a strong translational orientation. The IN aspires to become a reference in terms of TRANSLATION and collaboration between basic and clinical researchers in different disciplines.
The IN is also firmly committed to INNOVATION. The initiative of the Generalitat Valenciana to create a Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI) to stimulate the transfer of research results to industry and society, has allowed the creation of an associated Scientific Unit for Business Innovation (UCIE) to the IN, called IN.PULSE, which we hope will contribute to increasing the social impact of our research on the Valencian economy and industry, as well as the well-being of citizens. The first results have begun to be evident in this period. The IN is also a teaching institution that wants to spread excellence 10 in academic and technical education in neuroscience. The IN has a strong vocation for TRAINING and EDUCATION and aspires to train new generations of neuroscientists. Our researchers together with the UMH maintains very attractive international Master and PhD programs in Neuroscience. Our PhD program has been awarded with a mention as “Programme of Excellence” by the Ministry of Education and has ran for more than 20 years forming hundreds of neuroscientists, some of which are today leaders in their fields. In addition, during the Academic Year 2015-2016 we started the International Master in Neuroscience: from bench to bedside. This is a one-year course totaling 60 ECTS on both basic and advanced aspects of neuroscience taught by University and CSIC lecturers in collaboration with the Developmental Biology Master of the Institute Pasteur and the University Paris VI (Pierre et Marie Curie).
The training vocation of the IN extends to society in general. The IN organizes various scientific OUTREACH activities, the most notable of which is the celebration of World Brain Week with a week of open doors that in 2019 reached record participation figures (more than 2,500 visitors) and had live radio and television broadcasts of UMH and RNE. In 2020, the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19 forced us to cancel this activity, already very popular in Alicante society, which we hope to resume when possible.
The IN is very active in the establishment of COLLABORATIONS & ALLIANCES with prestigious international institutes, which allows interchange of researchers, achieve a critical mass of international leadership and access to complementary technologies, and with other institutions and active forces in our society interested in promoting research and education in neurosciences.