The Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi was among the vast number of people who accepted the 'ice-bucket challenge' this summer, helping to raise €2 million (US$2.5 million) in Italy for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (see Nature 514, 403–404; 2014).

This sum exceeds his government's average annual budget for ALS research, which is still seriously underfunded — despite Italy ranking third in international ALS publications, after the United States and Japan.

ALS researchers worldwide are waiting to see how the sum of around $100 million that has been collected by this philanthropic phenomenon will be used, and whether it will boost governments' plummeting contributions towards basic research. I hope so: without such funds there can be no development of new drugs for this incurable disease.