The International Council of Science (ICSU) (formerly the International Council of Scientific Unions) is "a non-governmental organization founded in 1931 to bring together natural scientists in international scientific endeavour."

ICSU has 98 multi-disciplinary national scientific members - scientific research councils or science academies - and 26 international, single-discipline Scientific Unions, and 28 Scientific Associates. The Council initiates and coordinates international interdisciplinary programmes and interdisciplinary bodies for the purposes of research. It acts as a focus for the exchange of scientific ideas and information, and the development of standards. It organizes hundreds of congresses, symposia and other scientific meetings each year around the world.

ICSU is largely supported by its members, but other sources of income include grants and contracts from UN bodies, foundations and agencies. It depends heavily, however, on time contributed freely by the thousands of scientists committed to its objectives.

Although ICSU does not have a formal agreement with UNEP, the two organizations cooperate closely on a number of projects. These include the World Climate Programme, Studies of the Ozone Layer, the SCOPE programme on biogeochemical cycles, the International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and the three Global Observation Systems (GCOS, GOOS, GTOS).

Visit the ICSU website.