The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine established the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders (the Forum) in 2006 to bring together leaders from government, industry, academia, disease advocacy organizations, and other interested stakeholders. The Forum meets two or three times per year and provides its members with a neutral venue for exchanging information, ideas, and differing perspectives. At its meetings, the Forum examines significant?and sometimes contentious?issues concerning scientific needs and opportunities, priority setting, and policies related to neuroscience and nervous system disorders research; the development, regulation, and use of interventions for the nervous system; and related ethical, legal, and social implications. In addition to the regular membership meetings, the Forum sponsors two or three workshops per year, publishes workshop proceedings, and commissions papers as additional mechanisms for informing its membership, other stakeholders, and the public.
Understanding how the nervous system develops, functions, ages, and interacts with the environment?in both health and disease?and developing safe and efficacious interventions for nervous system disorders are deeply challenging. Many federal agencies are involved in this endeavor, including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense, as well as academic institutions, private sector companies, disease-focused organizations, and philanthropic foundations, both in the United States and worldwide. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine?s Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders provides a neutral venue for leaders from across these groups to exchange information, ideas, and differing perspectives, with ultimate goal of contributing to accelerating the pace of discovery in neuroscience research and the development of therapies for nervous system disorders.
