Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) is a potential first symptom of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Nonetheless, in most patients with SCD, Alzheimer's pathology is not the cause of complaints. Subthreshold psychiatric symptoms can be an alternative origin of SCD. We initiated the Subjective Cognitive ImpairmENt Cohort (SCIENCe) to study the earliest changes leading to AD. We aim to describe the SCIENCe study design and participant characteristics. We included consecutive memory clinic patients with SCD in SCIENCe (n=151, age 64±8, 44% female, MMSE 29±2, APOE e4 38%). Participants received extensive neuropsychological testing, psychiatric and lifestyle questionnaires, MRI, blood, DNA and CSF collection, and optional amyloid-PET scan. We measured memory complaints with the Cognitive Change Index and quality of life with the EuroQol. Amyloid status was available for n=114(75%). Attempting to characterize different subgroups of SCD patients, we classified participants in three categories: (i) preclinical AD (amyloid positive), (ii) subthreshold psychiatric symptoms (questionnaire indicative of depression, anxiety, personality traits), or (iii) undetermined (neither category i or ii). We assessed differences between categories using ANOVA or chi-squared tests. We investigated associations between SCD-plus criteria (age>60, APOE e4, caregiver reports decline, onset<5year) and preclinical AD using logistic regression analyses. 28(25% of sample with available amyloid status) participants had preclinical AD, n=58(38%) had subthreshold psychiatry, and n=65(43%) were classified undetermined. 8/28(29%) participants with preclinical AD also had subthreshold psychiatry. In subthreshold psychiatry both self and caregiver report of memory complaints was higher, and quality of life lower, than in the undetermined category (both p<0.01), with preclinical AD in between. Evaluating SCD-plus criteria as indicators of preclinical AD, we found that age>60 (Odds Ratio 7.7(95% CI 1.7–38.9)) and APOE e4 (OR 4.8(1.6–15.0)) were independently associated with preclinical AD, while caregiver report (OR 1.9(0.6–5.7)) and onset<5 years (OR 0.9(0.3–2.7)) were not. The SCIENCe project extensively investigates factors potentially related to the subjective experience of cognitive decline. Evaluation of the first 151 participants revealed a heterogeneous group, with besides preclinical AD also subthreshold psychiatric features, and roughly half having no clear origin of complaints. Furthermore, some, but not all, SCD-plus criteria were associated with preclinical AD.