About the institute

The Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam is a new research organization at the VU University (VU) and the VU Medical Center (VUmc) Amsterdam, founded in 2008, and being a merger of two former research networks at our campus: CNCR and ICEN. We have created a modern research institute where patients, medical professionals, scientists, students and professional visitors (like journalists or industrial partners) enter our facilities through the same front desk and assemble to create a 'hub' in the neuroscience community.

A 'campus' is traditionally a piece of land donated by the city to a private university, usually outside the city, on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings. The definition currently defines a collection of buildings that belong to a given institution, either academic or non-academic. According to this definition, the VU campus like Columbia University in New York is a real campus - originally lying outside the old city - but now being in midst of it thanks to urban expansion of Amsterdam.

The VU University and Medical Center are located on the same campus, which is unique in the Netherlands. Our campus is 15 minutes away from the national airport Schiphol and  located on the socalled 'Zuidas', a large business district that is developing rapidly for the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The 'Zuidas' is also known as the 'Financial Mile'. It can be found between the Amstel river and the turnaround of the ringway A10. The greatest influences for the development of the Zuidas are La Défense in Paris en The Docklands in London. In size it can best be compared with the Noordruimte/Espace Nord in Brussels.

Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The city, which had a population of 750,000 in 2008, comprises the northern part of the Randstad, the 6th-largest metropolitan area in Europe, with a population of around 6.7 million. The VU University/Medical Center employs ~ 12000 professionals on one campus. It should not be confused with the University of Amsterdam, which is spread all over the city.