Deep inelastic scattering: Status and future

Deep inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering (DIS) is briefly characterised in its historical role in establishing the standard model of the electroweak and strong interactions. Key results are presented which are being obtained with the world's highest energy DIS experiments performed at HERA. Prospects are discussed for the future of DIS and experimentation with electron-proton beams approaching the TeV scale of energy in the next decade(s).