The European Educational Research Association (EERA) hosted their 2019 conference in Hamburg with the theme:  “Education in an Era of Risk – the Role of Educational Research for the Future”. The conference was attended by Dr Surette van Staden and Dr Celeste Combrinck from the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA). Dr van Staden was discussant for a session entitled ‘Growing up with a Heritage Language in Germany: Effects on further language skills". Dr Combrinck received the WERA-DiVER IEA visiting researcher award during a keynote session. The award is a joint collaboration by the World Education Research Association (WERA) and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) to contribute to the advancement of educational research. The conference offered networking opportunities and a wide spectrum of papers covering various educational topics.