Michael Byram is Professor Emeritus at Durham University, England. Having studied languages at Cambridge University, he taught French and  German in school and adult education and then did teacher education at Durham. He was adviser to the Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe and then on the expert group which produced the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture. His research has included the education of minorities, foreign language teaching and intercultural competence, and more recently on how the PhD is experienced and assessed in a range of different countries.

Mike Fleming is Professor Emeritus at the University of Durham, UK. He has published widely on intercultural education and arts education.

Joseph Sheils was involved in curriculum development for modern languages in Ireland. He subsequently worked at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, where he coordinated the Council's intergovernmental co-operation programmes on language education until his retirement in 2011. He has written on language policy and pedagogy, and has contributed to publications by the Council of Europe and CUP.