Created in 1975 and established by the national authorities, the CTNERHI is an organization controlled by the law of July, 1, 1901. The centre currently comprises 53 support teams, consisting of 19 CREAI (Local Centre for Maladjusted Children and Adolescents) and others organizations working in the field of disability or social misfit.

The CTNERHI maintains various contacts throughout the world. In that respect, it is particularly named by the World Health Organization as a Collaborating Centre for the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).

A public service vocation

According to its status, the CTNERHI has "to conduct research studies and assessment related to the needs of disabled children and adults, to the provision devices , to the programs and methods of intervention in order to inform the Ministry of Social Affairs". To that effect, the centre has to improve the quality of the information on which policy decisions are made. It also carries out more general studies on social policies from its own initiative or from public or private offers.

The centre also has a documentation department that collects, diffuses and updates huge information on the field of disability in French and foreign language.

A formal pluriannual programs agreement

The objectives of the research programme is set up within the framework of a formal pluriannual agreement with the DGAS (General Directorate of Social Action) and the DREES (Department of Research, Studies, Assessment and Statistics), both of these publics administrative departments belonging to the Ministry responsible of the disability policy, manage the activities of the CTNERHI on a period of three years.

The agreement turns around the following programs for the period 2003-2005 :

Programs : assessment to the methods of intervention, to the provision of devices, to the methods of innovation and quality.

assessment process and tool for assessing quality
assessment for new devices for independent living
new practices in workshops
facilities access, products and services as well

 Programs : qualitative follow-up on the development and the trajectories of children with disabilities.

implementation of a 10 year longitudinal follow-up of implanted pre-lingual deaf children. (up to 2010)
the future of the children enrolled in the CDES (departmental commission for special education).

 Programs : statistics and data

international comparative studies on statistics in the frame of DISTAB network
children in the institutes of re-education, the HID (Handicaps, Disabilities and Dependency) survey in special education centres, 2nd round
disadvantage studies from the HID survey
mental disability studies from the HID survey
the exploitation of the complementary module of employment in the INSEE survey 2002, (national institute for statistics and economics surveys)

 Programs : concepts and classifications

attendance and meetings of the collaborating centres of the World Health Organization (WHO)
presentation of the use of the ICF in France (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health).
studies of the ICF applications in the CDES and the COTOREP (technical commission for vocational orientation and reclassification)

 Programs : national and international policies

the notion of disability in five European countries
the employment policy of people with disabilities at the international level (ILO)

 Programs : the promotion of the field of the research : publications, communications, and inter-institutional exchange of views and information

a quaterly journal : Handicap, Revue de sciences humaines et sociales"
collections : Etudes et Recherches, Histoire, Point Sur, Essais…
publications: Handicap et Chiffres : données sociales
interventions, communications and symposiums
inter-institutional views and information exchange

 Programs : management of a documentation department and the diffusion of the whole information

watching over material
access to information and documentation
development of a documentation network

 Programs : the publication and the promotion of the documentation department's work

professional documents files
a weekly : Flash-information handicap
an organization book index on the field of disability