This chapter traces the early origins of European collaboration in controlled thermonuclear fusion research, within the larger picture of Cold War nuclear policy in the late 1950s-early 1960s, and as a consequence of the signing of the Euratom treaty in 1957. It then presents some preliminary findings on the Association contract which was signed in 1960 between Euratom and Italy, in order to carry out research in controlled thermonuclear fusion at the then newly created Laboratori nazionali di Frascati, near Rome, within the framework of the Comitato Nazionale Energia Nucleare (CNEN), the Italian civilian nuclear energy agency.
