The Fifth ESSENCE Workshop held in Madrid, Spain (20-21 February, 2017) focused on individual progress, collaborations, integration, and anticipated final outcomes. All Fellows presented their research, while senior partners presented updates on project-wide activities. All participants took advantage of collaboration meetings and cross-institutional project planning. On 22nd February senior staff had a Supervisory Board Meeting, while the Fellows had a full day of training on commercialization and proposal writing.