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 im portance 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...