Profile

The Italian Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Network (Rete Italiana delle Neuroscienze e della Riabilitazione, RIN) is the country’s largest research network in this field. It was founded in 2017 by the Italian Ministry of Health to: encourage collaboration between recognised Italian Research Hospitals (Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, IRCCS), facilitate the spread of information on their clinical and scientific activities, and coordinate actions at international level in order to raise the profile and increase the competitiveness of the sector.

The Network also supports and facilitates scientific and technological research and training initiatives, promoting the exchange of scientific data and results, access to complex technologies, and the development of joint projects to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of specific diseases (neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases and related conditions), as well as the transfer of the results to industry (technology transfer). The Network currently has 30 member institutes.

Fields of interest and scientific programme
  • Adult neurology (23/29 institutes)
  • Paediatric neurology (15/29 institutes)
  • Neurosurgery (14/29 institutes)
  • Neurorehabilitation (23/29 institutes)
  • Adult neuropsychiatry (7/29 Institutes)

Clinical and research
capacity of the Network

106.405

HOSPIT. PER YEAR

In-patients

1.230.240

VISITS/YEAR

Out-patients

984

TRIALS/YEAR

Active Clinical Trials

16,282,5

(2019)

Impact Factor

Italy’s accredited research hospitals (those formally designated IRCCS by the Ministry of Health) carry out preclinical and clinical research, and deliver highly specialised treatment and care. Their approach, based on a translational continuum, places the patient at the heart of the entire process. Clinical, instrumental, molecular and neuropathological characterisation of patients is the basis of pathogenetic studies aiming to identify advanced early diagnostic biomarkers, therapeutic targets and innovative intervention strategies. Research advances are transferred, in real time, into clinical practice (translationality).

The Network’s priority areas for action, agreed with the Ministry of Health, are genomics, and neuroimaging, fundamental fields of study for achieving early diagnosis, characterisation and endophenotype-based stratification of patients, and identification of risk factors and treatment response markers, with the ultimate aim of developing a personalised, precision medicine approach to the patient.

An equally important part of the Network’s activity is geared at creating an integrated network of IRCCS institutes in order to promote remote delivery of specific motor and cognitive neurorehabilitation treatments, in such a way that healthcare provision need no longer be concentrated in hospitals, but made available in local settings; this means easier access to personalised services and continuity of care for patients, quantitative monitoring of outcomes, and the development of common clinical and research pathways.

Financial support for the pursuit of these objectives is guaranteed thanks to structural investments made possible by dedicated funds. Projects driven by the principles of innovation, integration and the complementarity of IRCCS institutes have recently been launched in order to promote further growth of the system. They are giving important scientific and clinical results, which will serve to enhance the quality of the services provided to the national health service and increase the competitiveness of IRCCS healthcare research, both nationally and internationally.