Your discussion of the challenges facing the International Council for Science paints a misleadingly negative picture (Nature 515, 311; 2014).

We are a non-governmental organization representing academies and research councils from 140 countries and the science community through 31 disciplinary unions, and are a leading voice for science.

The council has initiated global research projects such as the International Polar Years. Our current flagship projects are Future Earth: Research for Global Sustainability; Urban Health and Wellbeing; and Integrated Research on Disaster Risk. The biological sciences are fully integrated into our programmes (see go.nature.com/xhzhif).

The council represents science in global organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and is the scientific and technology lead for the UN sustainable development goals programme.

The council is dedicated to the promotion of freedom and responsibility of scientists, and champions open access to data and information through its Committee on Data for Science and Technology and new World Data System. To improve links between science and policy, the council convened a meeting of governmental science advisers (www.globalscienceadvice.org), and a global network is being established.

Details of these activities and the external review report commissioned by the council can be found at www.icsu.org.