Long and thin flexible structures have many different applications throughout various industry branches all over the world, and Cosserat rod models provide a versatile framework for the modeling and simulation of such applications. However, Cosserat rod models are technically quite demanding and rarely touched in the academic education of students. With THREAD we aim to change this situation and provide a new generation of skilled and motivated young researchers with broad, highly interdisciplinary and scientifically profound background in this subject. I hope that in this way THREAD provides the seed to spread knowledge about this academically interesting and likewise useful area