The NIH has created a Neurological Emergencies Treatment Trials (NETT) Network to conduct large simple trials to reduce the burden of very acute injuries and illnesses affecting the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system. The network recognizes and seeks to explore the special narrow window of opportunity that seems to exist in treating neurologic damage from a variety of pathologies ranging from stroke to traumatic brain injury to seizures to meningitis. The study of very rapid interventions will have to be implemented by paramedics in the field, or by physicians in the Emergency Department. This network provides the basis for conducting efficient studies in these environments.