The past century has witnessed major advances in the control of many infectious diseases, yet outbreaks and epidemics caused by (re-) emerging RNA viruses continue to pose a global threat to human health. As illustrated by the global COVID19 pandemic, high healthcare costs, economic disruption and loss of productivity reinforce the unmet medical need to develop new antiviral strategies to combat not only the current pandemic but also future viral outbreaks.

Pivotal for effective anti-viral defense is the innate immune system, a first line host response that senses and responds to virus infection. While molecular details of the innate immune response are well characterized, this research field is now being revolutionized with the recognition that cell metabolism has a major impact on the antiviral and inflammatory responses to virus infections. A detailed understanding of the role of metabolic regulation with respect to antiviral and inflammatory responses, together with knowledge of the strategies used by viruses to exploit immunometabolic pathways, will ultimately change our understanding and treatment of pathogenic viral diseases.

INITIATE is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network (MSCA-ITN), with the goal to train 15 early stage PhD researchers (ESRs) to become experts in antiviral immunometabolism (https://initiate-itn.eu/). To this end, INITIATE brings together a highly complementary international team of academic and corporate leaders from 7 European countries, with outstanding track records in the historically distinct research fields of virology, immunology and metabolism. The ESRs of INITIATE are trained in these interdisciplinary research fields through individual investigator-driven research projects, specialized scientific training events, workshops on academia-industry interactions, outreach & communication. INITIATE will deliver a new generation of creative and entrepreneurial researchers who will be able to face the inevitable future challenges in combating viral diseases.

在过去的一个世纪中，许多传染病的控制取得了重大进展，但是由（重新）出现的RNA病毒引起的暴发和流行仍然继续对人类健康构成全球威胁。正如全球COVID19大流行所说明的那样，高昂的医疗保健成本，经济中断和生产力下降加剧了未满足的医疗需求，需要开发新的抗病毒策略来不仅抗击当前的大流行而且还应对未来的病毒爆发。

有效抗病毒防御的关键是先天免疫系统，它是感知和响应病毒感染的一线宿主反应。虽然先天免疫反应的分子细节已得到很好的表征，但随着细胞代谢对病毒感染的抗病毒和炎症反应产生重大影响，这一研究领域正在发生革命性的变化。对代谢调节相对于抗病毒和炎症反应的作用的详细理解，以及对病毒利用免疫代谢途径所采用的策略的了解，最终将改变我们对病原性病毒性疾病的理解和治疗。

INITIATE是Marie Sklodowska-Curie行动创新培训网络（MSCA-ITN），其目标是培训15位早期博士研究人员（ESR）成为抗病毒免疫代谢专家（https://initiate-itn.eu/）。为此，INITIATE汇聚了来自7个欧洲国家的高度互补的国际学术和公司领导团队，在病毒学，免疫学和新陈代谢的历史悠久的不同研究领域中拥有出色的往绩。INITIATE的ESR通过研究人员驱动的个人研究项目，专业的科学培训活动，学术界与产业界的交流，拓展和交流研讨会，在这些跨学科研究领域中受到了培训。