The Kick-Off meeting took place on the 17th and 18th January 2017 in Vienna. AQUARIUS stands for “Broadband Tunable QCL based Sensor for Online and Inline Detection of Contaminants in Water” and aims to develop a new generation of photonic sensing solutions, which enable pervasive water monitoring, using high-performance online systems and compact and cost-effective inline systems. The AQUARIUS consortium consists of 8 partners from 5 different countries (Austria, Germany, Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands). Due to excellent cooperation in the proposal creation the basis for a very promising collaboration has already been set.