Most of the global networks and organizations promoting social, cultural and economic development are convinced that information and communication technologies (ICT) play a significant role in these development efforts. Many of the least developed countries (LDC's) have already acknowledged the benefits of ICTs in their national development strategies and poverty reduction strategies (PRS). Most of the OECD countries have also underlined in their strategies that the information society - or knowledge society as the education community would prefer to say - will be the driving force of development and wellbeing of their citizens in the future. There seems to be a broad consensus, that education, science and culture are at the heart of the trend towards a knowledge society as are the information and communication technologies. However, the world is still divided between those, who have access to education and ICT, and those who don't. Therefore, providing equal access to education and information, with help of ICT where possible, is the global challenge for the education community. To realize this challenge, UNESCO's strategic plan for 2002 - 2007 welcomes efforts to promote the concept of "knowledge societies" based on the following four principles: freedom of expression; equal access to education; universal access to information and cultural and linguistic diversity. In addition, UNESCO has defined a cross-cutting theme of the contribution of information and communication technologies to the development of education, science and culture and the construction of a knowledge society. Also the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva 2003, that will be continued in Tunis 2005, has concluded, that education, knowledge, information and communication are at the core of human progress, endeavour and well-being. Further, ICTs have an immense impact on virtually all aspects of our lives. The United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) similarly emphasize the benefits of ICTs that should be utilized in the development of the poorest countries. Access to information has been seen as a necessary resource in building the capacity of nations for sustainable economical and social development. What are the implications of this global challenge of education for educational research communities? The research communities in education have usually organized themselves according to the scientific interests of individual researchers and research groups. This has lead sometimes to competing and fragmented research communities, where minor differences in research methods or approaches have been criteria for identification of communities. The broader picture of research needs in education globally may have come somewhat blurred. Also, because of the random organization of research networks, the contributions of different research approaches have been difficult to get together in solving global educational problems. This applies also to the research on ICT in education and open and flexible distance learning, which both already consist of dozens of sub-branches, that are not necessarily communicating with each others any more. However, if we consider the global challenge of education, and the promise of ICT in this challenge in particular, we may need to rethink the organization of the fragmented research field. We may ask from ourselves, how do the structures and agendas of our research networks and communities correspond the global challenge of education and thereby affect research interests of researchers. What are the major problems in education globally, that should be considered as major themes when organizing research communities, especially at the European level? These are the question I would like to address also to the EERA and it's research networks on the fields of open learning and ICT in education.