The N.I.C.E. is the antagonist organization in C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength.
The name is an acronym for the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments. In the 1945 novel, the organization presents itself as a scientific and social improvement project, but its ambitions become coercive and destructive. Lewis uses it to explore the dangers of technocracy, manipulation, and the pursuit of power without moral limits.
The novel is the final volume of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, following Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. Unlike the earlier books, its setting is recognizably modern Britain, and its conflict unfolds through institutions, politics, science, and occult forces.
The organization’s name is sometimes mistaken for a generic phrase rather than an acronym. Lewis deliberately made “N.I.C.E.” sound reassuring while contrasting that appearance with the group’s methods and goals.