Beam physics in future electron hadron colliders

High-energy electron-hadron collisions could support a rich research programme in particle and nuclear physics. Several future projects are being proposed around the world, in particular eRHIC at BNL, MEIC at TJNAF in the US, and LHeC at CERN in Europe. This paper will highlight some of the accelerator physics issues, and describe related technical developments and challenges for these machines. In particular, optics design and beam dynamics studies are discussed, including longitudinal phase space manipulation, coherent synchrotron radiation, beam-beam kink instability, ion effects, as well as mitigation measures for beam break up and for space-charge induced emittance growth, all of which could limit the machine performance. Finally, first steps are presented towards an LHeC R&D facility, which should investigate relevant beam-physics processes.