The group of European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) was formed in 1971 by the medical research councils or equivalent organizations in Western Europe and became a Standing Committee of the European Science Foundation in 1975. The aims of the EMRC are to exchange information on research policies and to initiate and stimulate international cooperation in biomedical research. Research on mental illness is one of the areas of special importance identified by the EMRC. Having surveyed the activities of its member organizations in mental illness research the EMRC decided in 1978 to set up a study group in order to promote European collaboration on research needed in this field. It was decided that emphasis should be on research on treatment and on the evaluation of treatment. The group prepared a proposal to the EMRC which suggested organizing small workshops with the participation of two or three research workers from each member country as well as from organizations with observer status in the EMRC such as they WHO and the National Institutes of Health in the United States. The members of the Study Group nominated by the EMRC are at present Professors E. Anttinen (Finland), R. Daly (Ireland), T. Helgason (Iceland; chairman), H. Hippius (Federal Republic of Germany), and E. A. Sand (Belgium), and Dr. R. Sadoun (France).