Lifelong learning in the digital era is characterised by the increasing digitalisation of society and a growing networked and hybrid organisation of human activities. In this era, lifelong learning needs to relate to how digitalisation and hybrid and networked organisations blur earlier established boundaries of content, place, technology, time and social settings (e.g., Jaldemark, 2021; Nygren et al., 2019; Peters & Romero, 2019). Moreover, lifelong learning is emphasised to occur in various formal, informal and nonformal settings that people participate in throughout their lifespan. Thus, it is necessary to focus on these recent developments and their impact on practice and research. The special section builds on an open call for papers and an invited digital research workshop organised by the eLL- group (e-Learning Lab) at Aalborg University and theHEEL- group (Higher Education and E-Learning) at Mid Sweden University 16– 17 of November 2020. The invited research workshop emphasised the intersection of the fields of educational technology and lifelong learning as an important research trajectory for future development.