David Istance is a senior member of OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), and heads up its work on Innovative Learning Environments (ILE). Previously, he ran the forerunner Schooling for Tomorrow project. He has written or directed, alone or with others, many reports and articles. Among these from OECD are: The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice (2010), Demand-sensitive Schooling? Evidence and Issues (2006), and What Schools for the Future? (2001), with the latest ILE publication now being written (summer 2012).

He has also worked extensively on lifelong learning and equity, including being author of the OECD report Equity and Education in OECD Countries (1997), and was co-editor of and author in the reader on lifelong learning published by Open University Press in 2002, International Perspectives on Lifelong Learning: from Recurrent Education to the Knowledge Society. He writes the overview publication Education Today: The OECD Perpective (2010 and 2009, latest edition in preparation). He is an Honorary Visiting Professor at Cardiff University, is on the boards of the European Journal of Education and the International Partnership Network and his initial undergraduate and post-graduate studies were at Oxford University.