Background and motivation:The combination of cloud computing, service-orientation, and on-demand application delivery is bringing about a paradigm shift in our ways of computer usage. As the software industry moves closer to service-based application engineering and cloud-based application delivery, the traditional models, methodologies, and technologies for developing and offering software applications are becoming increasingly challenged. Emerging questions and research challenges form a vibrant new field with tremendous industrial innovation potential in which Europe needs to establish excelling research. Timely and focused education of future researchers in this area is therefore essential.Major objectives:• The RELATE Initial Training Network aims to establish a network of international academic and industrial partners for a joint research training effort in the area of engineering and provisioning service-based cloud applications. The training is intended to not only shape high-level academic researchers, but also educate next generation experts and innovators in the European software industry.• Through an integrative and multidisciplinary research approach, RELATE aims to promote the advancement of the state of the art in the related areas of model-driven engineering and formal methods, service-based mash-ups and application integration, security, performance, and trust in service-based cloud applications, and quality management and business model innovation.Consortium:The RELATE Initial Training Network joins organisations with internationally recognised research activities in the area of engineering and provisioning of service-based applications. At its core, the network consists of five academic organisations and two companies from Germany, Greece, France, UK and Czech Republic, and is complemented by six additional industrial and academic associated partners from Germany, Greece, and France.