This chapter addresses the European Community’s involvement in the creation of the European Science Foundation (ESF), an independent and nongovernmental European institution devoted to fundamental research, and another disappointment for the promoters of an EC-centric vision for European research collaboration. While proving that the EC had become a European science policy actor to be reckoned with, the struggle over the Community’s status in the foundation demonstrated that for its political initiatives to succeed, the EC needed support not only from the national governments but also from those whom the political decisions would fundamentally concern: researchers and their representatives and supporters.