Seeking to advance current knowledge on mental health, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona set up the CORE partnership on mental health, part of the Communities Oriented to Strategic Challenges. Under the CORE partnership, the EU-funded TOUCH project aims to recruit and train 24 doctoral candidates in mental health and well-being research. The doctoral programme encompasses 4 major thematic areas, involves 7 reference organisations as implementing partners (CED, CRM, CVC, FSIE, I3PT, SantPau and VHIR), and offers more than 60 options for research projects with prestigious supervisors and world-class research infrastructures. TOUCH adopts a comprehensive approach to fellows’ training, grounded in Open Science principles, through practical hands-on schools and training on research diversity, among other aspects.