The Neurosciences Research Program (NRP) was founded in 1962 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the recognition that traditional barriers between disciplines had to be removed if brain functions were ever to be understood, the NRP developed innovative formats for intellectual exchange among scientists from diverse disciplines along with effective programs for disseminating knowledge about brain science within the broader scientific community.

After a degree of success in its activities over two decades, the NRP leaders recognized the need for a different kind of scientific approach- one that emphasized formulation of scientific questions for future research, rather than only the assessment and dissemination of current knowledge. To this end, The Neurosciences Institute was established in 1981 and located as an independent entity on the campus of The Rockefeller University in New York City. The NRP moved its operations to the Rockefeller in 1983.

The Institute began by sponsoring various activities for visiting scientists; these programs were generally organized at the suggestion of individual scientists around a focused research problem. Over the last two decades, more than 1,100 scientists from 300 institutions and 24 countries have visited the Institute to meet informally in small groups to exchange information, to plan experiments to be carried out upon return to their home institutions, or to prepare critical evaluations of current research for communication to the scientific community.

In 1988, the Institute began its own program of research in theoretical neurobiology. Carried out by a group of specially appointed resident Fellows, the program was designed to develop biologically based theories of higher brain functions and to train young scientists in the methods used to construct such neural theories.

In 1993, the Institute moved from New York to temporary quarters in La Jolla, California, while permanent facilities were being constructed nearby on land owned by The Scripps Research Institute. The new three-acre campus on Torrey Pines Mesa was officially opened on October 15, 1995. The three-building complex, designed by the architecture firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien and Associates, has been awarded numerous honors, including the Honor Award for Architecture from the American Institute of Architects in 1997.

The new quarters include experimental laboratories for research across a broad front of neurobiological disciplines, as well as facilities for theoretical research and for visiting scientists. With the laboratories complete, a research program for Fellows in Experimental Neurobiology was begun, thus fulfilling the original plan for the Institute’s full range of scientific activities.

The Institute continues to be the home of the NRP, known internationally as a very prestigious small academy. The NRP consists of a maximum of 36 members elected from among the most greatly accomplished neuroscientists and other scientists interested in brain function. It meets yearly at the Institute and serves in the interim to offer advice that might be necessary within various neuroscientific specialties.

The Institute is under the aegis of the Neurosciences Research Foundation (NRF), a publicly supported, tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization. Its Board of Trustees includes representatives of the general public, as well as scientists. The Institute is supported largely by gifts and grants to the Foundation from non-governmental sources, including individuals, foundations, and corporations. Certain projects also receive governmental support. The flexibility that these modes of support engender has proven to be important for the organizational and operational styles of the Institute.

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