The OPATHY kick-off meeting took place on 2nd and 3rd of September 2015 at Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and was the first opportunity that all involved PIs of the OPATHY beneficiary institutions met personally. Furthermore, the partner organisation Illumina (PO2) was represented. In a friendly and productive atmosphere the participants discussed about the individual Early Stage Researcher (ESR) projects, planned training activities, the recruitment process and management aspects (see Appendix: Agenda). Minutes of the meeting were taken by the project manager and sent to the participants the following week.