NERV's official purpose is to lead the defense of mankind against the Angels, to stop them from initiating a Third Impact after the destruction that was wrought by Adam during Second Impact in 2000, through use of the Evangelions, which they constructed. Nerv is headed by Commander Gendou Ikari. NERV's origins lie in the research organization known as Gehirn, which was renamed and reorganized into
"NERV" in 2010 after its headquarters at Tokyo-3 and the Magi supercomputers were completed. Unlike Gehirn, whose existence was officially a secret (with the UN Artificial Evolution Laboratory serving as a front), NERV is semi-public. Secretly, NERV is backed by the mysterious organization Seele, a power cabal covertly controlling the United Nations and its true goal is to eliminate the Angels.
