Mark Thorley is a member of the ICSU Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the conduct of Science (CFRS). He has a background in research data management, open access and open data, gained from 27 years working for the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). He was a member of the group that produced the UK Concordat on Open Research Data, and was prominent in the development and implementation of the RCUK Open Access policy. He was also a member of the international working group that developed the OECD’s Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding. He is Data Planning co-Champion for the Belmont Forum e-Infrastructure and Data Management project, and between 2010 and 2016 he was a member of the Executive Committee of CODATA – the ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology.