<p>This article examines the French model for research governance that emerged in the 1960s to offer a fresh perspective on how the national and the international are interconnected in the scientific policy world. Drawing inspiration from the field of transnational history, we propose that models such as the French one be understood as “folk concepts” rather than as analytical categories. Rather than drawing conclusions about the individual details of the French model, this article will sketch the contours of the role that models played in debates about reform taking place in the early 1960s – a role that was multifaceted and varied depending on the pathways for reform under consideration. Our research found that references to the international, while omnipresent when problems in research were being constructed, all but disappeared as solutions were formalized, as they were considered ill-adapted to domestic constraints. Once solutions had been defined, however, the international reemerged as reformers presented what they packaged as a new French model in the international arena. We found two main reasons behind these changing relationships to the international: the unstated interests of the reformers and the administrative viability of the proposed solutions. This analysis sheds new light on the relationships between national and international arenas of reform in the 1960s.</p>