Paul Downes is a Professor of Psychology of Education, and Director of the Educational Disadvantage Centre, Institute of Education, Dublin City University, and an Affiliate Professor at the Centre for Resilience and Socio‐Emotional Health, University of Malta. With over 120 peer‐reviewed publications in areas of education, psychology, sociology, philosophy, law, anthropology and social policy, he has given keynote lectures and invited presentations in 30 countries and for 16 countries' official ministries. He has been involved in various expert advisory roles for the European Commission, including the Pathways to School Success Working Group, and European Education and Training Expert Panel to support the EU's post‐2020 Strategic Cooperation Framework.

A Foundation P&V Brussels, Laureat Award Winner, he has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Victoria University, Melbourne and University of Cambridge, Lauterpacht Centre, and member of the Irish Senate and Parliament Expert Group on early school leaving. He is co‐author of the Assessment of the Implementation of the 2011 Council Recommendation to Reduce Early School Leaving, published by the EU Commission (2019) and was principal investigator for a 12 country European study on access to education.

An invited member of the Standing Review Board (2015-24), Humanities and Social Sciences Panel of the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong, China, he is Chair of the Editorial Board of the British Educational Research Journal (BERJ). His book Reconstructing Agency in Developmental and Educational Psychology: Inclusive Systems as Concentric Space (Routledge 2020) was nominated for the American Psychological Association's (APA) William James Book Award. He is lead editor of The Routledge International Handbook of Equity and Inclusion in Education 2024 (Downes, Li, Van Praag & Lamb).