The Research Department of Mental Health Sciences at UCL is known for research in psychiatric epidemiology, molecular genetics, health service research, psychiatry of the elderly, and trials of complex treatments at both primary and secondary care levels. Together with the other UCL departments- Primary Care & Population Health; Infection & Population Health; Epidemiology & Public Health and Centre fo rHealth Informatics & Multiprofessional Education it constitutes the UCL Division of Population Health. It is multidisciplinary and has a teaching staff of seven Professors, one Reader, ten Senior Lecturers, three Lecturers and three statisticians. There are three current MRC Fellows. It is located on three campuses: the Bloomsbury Campus, the Royal Free Campus, and the Whittington Campus.

The Department forms a part of the North London Hub of the Mental Health Research Network. It is the coordinating centre for the North London hub of DeNDRoN (Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network) It has multiple academic links with a range of university departments in the UK, on the Continent and in South America. There are particularly strong links with the Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, UCL. The department is part of a Consortium of Mental Health Sciences with academic psychiatrists based at the Institutes of Neurology and the Institute of Child Health. The psychiatrists based in the postgraduate institutes have particular interests in biological and developmental psychiatry, and in neuro-cognition and neuro-imaging.

The Department applies the principles of evidence-based health care to the teaching of under-graduates and graduates, and is strongly committed to its graduate programme. In addition to its under-graduates psychiatry teaching for medical students (clinical neurosciences module), it supports MSc degrees in Psychiatric Research and in Ageing and Mental Health. There are a number of MPhil/PhD/MD students who undertake research as part of externally funded projects and programmes. The Department runs MRCPsych programmes at both the Bloomsbury and Hampstead Campuses.