I discuss the theoretical treatment of the electroweak nuclear response based on nonrelativistic nuclear many-body theory. This approach allows for a unified parameter-free description of a variety of kinematical regions relevant to many neutrino experiments. Selected applications to electron- and neutrino--nucleus scattering in the impulse approximation regime are analyzed.

PACS numbers: 24.10.Cn, 25.30.Fj, 61.12.Bt