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The Institute of Neurology is a specialist postgraduate institute of UCL. The Institute is closely associated in its work with the National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, University College London Hospitals' NHS Foundation Trust, and in combination they form a national and international centre at Queen Square for teaching, training and research in neurology and allied clinical and basic neurosciences.

The Institute of Neurology has eight academic departments encompassing clinical and basic research within in each theme: Neurodegenerative Disease; Molecular Neuroscience, incorporating the Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies; Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy; Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders; Imaging Neuroscience; Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, Neuroinflammation and Clinical Neurosciences, Royal Free campus. In parallel there are currently six divisions representing professional affiliations: Clinical Neurology; Neurosurgery; Neurophysiology; Neuropathology; Neuropsychiatry and Neuropsychology; and Neuroradiology and Neurophysics. The Institute employs a total of around 500 staff, occupies some 6,451 sq m of laboratory and office space in five buildings, and has a current annual turnover of £33m.

The Institute receives over £19.1m per annum in grants for research from the principal medical charities concerned with neurological diseases, and from government agencies such as the Medical Research Council. Approximately 19% of the Institute's funding is obtained from the Higher Education Funding Council for England which has awarded high ratings for the Institute in each of the national Research Assessment Exercises since 1986. The Institute currently holds over 250 active grants, supporting research into the causes and treatment of a wide range of neurological diseases, including movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, brain cancer, stroke and brain injury, muscle and nerve disorders, cognitive dysfunction and dementia, and the work of the Institute's clinical academic staff is closely integrated with the Hospital's care of patients. Generous support for research at the Institute of Neurology is provided by the medical charities and especially by the charity, The Brain Research Trust http://www.brt.org.uk

Continuing the record of exceptional achievement in previous Research Assessments, in the 2008 RAE the IoN performed very strongly. Almost 100 FTE staff were submitted for evaluation, including a number of outstanding early career researchers. Overall 70% of our research was deemed to be internationally competitive or world leading. Three areas of research in particular were identified as world-leading: Cognitive neuroscience & human brain imaging, Inherited diseases & molecular, cellular and genetic neuroscience Neurodegenerative disease. Submitted papers were very highly cited, with an average citation rate of 40 per paper. UCL Neuroscience is currently rated second in the world by ISI Essential Science Indicators, and four of the top twelve most highly cited authors working worldwide in neuroscience and behaviour are based at the IoN. There are seven Fellows of the Royal Society at Queen Square.

A number of important research centers are based at the Institute of Neurology. These include:

•Wellcome Centre for Neuroimaging

•http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/

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•MRC Prion Unit

•http://www.prion.ucl.ac.uk/

•MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Disease

•http://www.ucl.ac.uk/neuromuscular/

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•Dementia Research Centre

•http://www.dementia.ion.ucl.ac.uk/

•Department of Health Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network (DENDRON)

•http://www.dendron.org.uk/

We share many research programmes with the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, the Reta Lila Weston Institute, the Royal Free Department of Clinical Neuroscience, the High Field Imaging Laboratory (Department of Engineering and Medical Physics), and also the neuroscience research groups based in our sister Institutes (Institute of Child Health and Institute of Ophthalmology).

The Institute of Neurology plays a major role in postgraduate teaching and training. There are some 150 graduate students at Queen Square. The Institute runs a number of graduate teaching programmes, including Master’s degrees in Clinical Neuroscience, Clinical Neurology and Advanced Neuroimaging. It is also making a major contribution to the new London-Paris MSc in Mind and Brain. We attract excellent graduate students of the highest quality through UCL-wide PhD programmes, including the Wellcome 4-year PhD in Neuroscience http://www.physiol.ucl.ac.uk/neurosciencephd/. Institute staff contribute to undergraduate teaching of clinical neurology for the Medical School.