"Fachdidaktik" might be conceived of in two contrary ways: • it participates in many systems of reference, • it is in the centre of relevant science. For example, research in chemistry education is torn between chemistry and pedagogy / psychology, between research and academic teacher training, between theory and practice, between development and application, between university and school, between internationality and the curricular demands of a "Bundesland", between educational monitoring and political consulting. The big task is to deal with the requirements of all these different agents and their very different perspectives and to construct research concepts acceptable from the different points of view. Successful research concepts and the actual quality of research are the basis for the recognition of "Fachdidaktik" as an important academic discipline. This field is a fairly young one, there is little research tradition, and the questions and methods come from many different disciplines. Therefore, interdisciplinary groups of researchers with different kinds of expertise are needed to establish specific research centers and develop continuous courses for Ph.D. students. It is these doctoral students then who build the basis for future research frameworks where one project starts from the results of the preceding one(s) - exemplified through chemistry education.