ESA-ITN will break through the state of the art in sepsis diagnostics and will train 15 early-stage researchers (ESRs) to determine the clinical potency of a variety of new complementary sepsis biomarkers. These cover the full range of the antiinflammatory response in sepsis, at genetic, molecular and cellular level. Rapid and practical biomarker diagnostics for sepsis will be developed by building on some of the world's most innovative diagnostic platforms. In addition, a whole new clinical research model that incorporates use of biomarker diagnostics will be designed and tested.All 15 interlinked ESR projects have an interdisciplinary component (intersection of sepsis research, product development, economics and medical practice) and international (representing 10 countries) and industry collaborations (incorporating 3 diagnostics firms, 1 bioinformatics company and a business school). Interactions within the network are strengthened by meaningful secondments, which take place at private beneficiary or partner institutes.The training programme covers:1. Specialist training in an international, interdisciplinary and intersectorial sepsis-orientated research project;2. Advanced technology training in pathogenesis, biomarker discovery, diagnostics, trial design and innovation management;3. Professional training in transferable skills, including the special ESA-ITN mini-MBA.The setup of ESA-ITN is unique as it reflects the entire innovation value chain for sepsis biomarker diagnostics. ESA-ITN is composed of leading institutes in sepsis research and a selection of Europe's top biomarker diagnostics companies. Links to various global networks and shared research infrastructures in the field of sepsis further leverage the proposition of ESA-ITN.