Globally, there has never been a more dangerous time to report the news. The Committee to Protect Journalists says 99 media workers were killed in 2018, the highest in years. Our vision is to revolutionise the way journalists protect themselves in emergencies by training in high-pressure, immersive scenarios. Using cutting-edge VR technology and biometric data, journalists will be able to practise skills and improve decision making under stress in ways that are more immersive and responsive than ever before. Hostile environment and first aid training saves lives but it is currently expensive and time-consuming, costing media companies tens of millions of pounds and taking busy journalists out of the newsroom for up to a week. These training courses are not easily repeatable and most journalists experience significant skill fade within months or even weeks. Cost and inconvenience also prevent many local journalists and freelancers from receiving training, yet news organisations increasingly rely on them to go into dangerous situations. Using stories based on real events from protests, terror attacks and other emergencies, Also Known As (AKA) and project partners, Modux, are prototyping a virtual reality (VR) experience that responds to the stress levels of a participant. This project will investigate how state-of-the-art ways to measure the stress hormone cortisol can drive the narrative of the training scenario. This VR experience will be delivered in conjunction with industry-leading trainers at leading news companies in the UK. The findings of the project will increase the potential of immersive training beyond journalists to all professions operating in dangerous or high-stakes environments such as humanitarian and aid workers, emergency responders, diplomats and corporate travellers. AKA is an immersive tech company run by two former foreign correspondents with years of experience working in hostile environments for major global news outlets. Based on their own experience of a life or death emergency in the field and after months of ethnographic research into the needs of colleagues, they are teaming up with immersive training and psychology experts to vastly improve the training on offer. Project partners Modux, along with psychologist and VR veteran Professor Robert Stone, have produced world-first training simulations for defence and corporate clients, such as the Royal College of Defence Medicine, the Royal Navy, police and firefighters. Combining their impressive body of research with AKA's storytelling acumen, they will develop innovative products that go beyond anything on offer in the VR training market.