During the kick-off on 10-11 May 2017, GlySign young researchers and their supervisors got familiarised with each other and their specific roles within the project as well as the roles of the participating organizations. Next to learning about the project objectives and challenges, the research and training programme and the time planning, the PhD students were introduced into the essentials of biomarker discovery and development, the main aspects of the three disease fields that will be covered within GlySign (auto/alloimmune diseases, prostate cancer and diabetes) as well as the essentials of glycan analysis.