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Over the last decade and a half, there has been a shift in research on the early manifestation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from retrospective designs to prospective longitudinal studies of children at elevated likelihood of developing ASD. While studies initially focused almost exclusively on infants with an older brother or sister with ASD, other populations, in particular very and extremely preterm born babies, are increasingly being examined. The main objectives are the identification of early markers and neurodevelopmental trajectories of ASD in order to improve prediction of diagnosis and intervention. In this article, some initial novel findings of our ongoing research at Ghent University are presented, which can be regarded as promising avenues for further work. We argue, however, that large-scale transdisciplinary multi-site projects on the national and international level are clearly needed to make substantial progress in this field. At the same time, careful attention to ethical concerns and dilemmas is extremely important.