In our ages research is an indispensable activity to provide information for development, decision-making and quality of products and services. Besides this pragmatic view research is urgently needed to learn more about the world we live in and the impacts of former as well as present innovations. This obviously is valid for the development and progress of Open and Distance Learning all over the world, too. Even more this is the case as many changes occur and the pace as well as the extent of innovation very often seems to be dramatically fast and wide.

Open and Distance Learning (and teaching) seems to be a “booming bussiness” in these days again, accompanied by

• far-reaching transitions of sytems
• the necessity to enlarge target groups and programs
• a fast technological drive
• a strong tendency to “virtual” teaching and learning and “virtual” organisations
• considerable cultural issues and challenges
• severe social aspects
• a rather strong economic pressure on diverse sides.

To foster research related to these (and other) issues EDEN introduced its own Research-Network (“R-Net”) last year. This workshop will be the first meeting point for presentation and in-depth discussion of research organised by EDEN´s R-Net. It is open to professionals inside and outside EDEN.

The workshop will especially focus on relationships between research and innovation in different areas of Open and Distance Learning. Thus EDEN as a network for professionals, teams, institutions and organisations in the field invites all those who do research, who need research, who want to do research and those who want to learn from others how, where and with whom to start research activities.

The aims of the First EDEN Research workshop are:

• To learn about research done (in order to enlarge knowledge)
• To evaluate the potential of research for innovation (in order to provide a better ground for decision-making and development)
• To find partners for collaboration and exchange of views (in order to highlight the benefits of networking)
• To develop guidelines for EDEN´s research policy (in order to strenghten the networks support for researchers in the field)

The official language of the workshop is English.