Description: The paper has three parts. It starts with historical findings about the importance of educational research/science of education in the context of the development of nation states and their national 'cultures'. These developments led to different forms of research and teaching cultures, styles of thinking and external expectations regarding 'function' and impact of educational research and technology. The second part focuses on processes of academisation and universitization, i.e. the structuring of educational research (including the use of new cross-national organisations], which opened the door for managerial influences/impact on educational research - trying to make educational research an applied science improving practice. The third part identifies new forms of organising educational research and research on education, which - perhaps as a way of 'liberation' or at least of alleviating the consequences of managerial power - seem to transcend national organisational boundaries and, at the same time, to keep borders of national research cultures alive. However, ways of organising educational research via networks (just like those in EERA) could also be interpreted as a socially integrating space of a variety of European research cultures. The empirical data stem from three year experiences as convenors' speaker, from a survey on practice and visions of EERA network convenors, and from an evaluation of ECER's outcome.