Background. The Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre was established by the Medical Research Council, in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, in 1994.

Method and Results. The paper describes the origins of the Centre; the reasons why a new initiative was needed in the early 1990s; the thinking that led to the proposal for a major interdisciplinary research centre that integrated social, genetic and developmental research perspectives; the approach to international recruitment of world leaders; and the initial research accomplishments with respect to the basic goal of understanding nature-nurture interplay.

Conclusions. The structure and interdisciplinary approach of the Centre have proved a success and the initial accomplishments have begun to meet the objectives of showing how nature-nurture interplay is involved in the development of psychiatric disorders.