The Groupement de Recherche et d'Études pour la Civilisation Européenne ("Research and Study Group for European Civilization"), better known as GRECE, is a French ethnonationalist think tank founded in 1968 to promote the ideas of the Nouvelle Droite ("New Right"). GRECE founding member Alain de Benoist has been described as its leader and "most authoritative spokesman". Prominent former members include Guillaume Faye and Jean-Yves Le Gallou.

GRECE is deeply opposed to multiculturalism, liberal democracy, capitalism, and distinguishes itself from other national-conservative organizations in its specific rejection of Christianity and endorsement of neopaganism. The group defends a nonreactionary "conservative revolution" aiming at the rejuvenation of a pan-European identity and nationalism, while supporting the preservation and separation of ethnic groups and cultures at the worldwide level. GRECE members have coined and promoted influential concepts in the Western far right, such as "ethnopluralism" and "archeofuturism".

The dissolution of the neo-fascist organization Jeune Nation in 1958 and the disappearance of the pro-colonial paramilitary group Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS) in 1962, as well as the failures of far-right candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour in the 1965 presidential election and of the European Rally for Liberty (REL) in the 1967 legislative election, are cited as events conducive to the foundation of GRECE and the development of its meta-political strategy.

The philosophy of GRECE drew inspiration from earlier essays and theories developed by the euronationalist magazine Europe-Action (1963–66)—headed by Dominique Venner and in which Alain de Benoist worked as a journalist—, most notably Venner's manifesto Pour une critique positive ("Towards a positive criticism"), written while imprisoned in 1962. Abandoning the myth of the coup de force (putsch), Venner asserted that far-right movements had to be at the origin of a cultural and non-violent revolution, via the diffusion of nationalist ideas in society until they reach cultural dominance. Another influence can be found in the "Manifesto of the Class of '60", published in 1960 by the initiators of the Federation of Nationalist Students (FEN), a far-right and pro-colonial students' organization. Committing themselves to "action of profound consequence", the authors sought to break with the "sterile activism" of violent insurrection previously espoused by Jeune Nation (1949–58). Venner and de Benoist had been previously active in Jeune Nation and the FEN, respectively.

Following the electoral failure of the European Rally for Liberty (1966–1969), some of its members – among them de Benoist, helped by an informal group of FEN militants – decided to found a cultural association to promote their ideas. In the 1960s, de Benoist had contributed as a writer and journalist to develop Venner's thesis on European nationalism, which served as an ideological basis for GRECE. Their theory was founded on a 'pan-racial' rather than ethnic or civic conception of nationalism: the nation-states had to be dissolved for the peoples of the "Occident"—or the "white race"—to unite within a common European empire, on the grounds that they are the inheritors of a single civilization.

GRECE was founded in Nice, Provence in January 1968 by European – mostly French – nationalist activists, and officially launched on 17 January 1969. Among the 40 founders were Alain de Benoist, Dominique Venner, Giorgio Locchi, Maurice Rollet (who became its first president), Pierre Vial, and Jean-Claude Valla. Their aim was to establish a meta-political "laboratory of ideas" that would influence mainstream right-wing parties and the French society at large. In May 1969, they circulated an internal document advising their members not to employ "outdated language" that might associate the group with fascism, and to socialize with Europe's most important decision-makers in order to influence their policies.

In 1969, Jean-Yves Le Gallou became a member of the Cercle Pareto, a students' club established in Sciences Po at the end of 1968 by Yvan Blot and closely linked to GRECE. They were joined by Guillaume Faye in 1970. GRECE launched its own review, Nouvelle École, in February–March 1968. Initially distributed exclusively among its members to hold debates in a semi-academic style, the review became public in 1969. From 1970 to 1982, Alain de Benoist worked has a journalist for the media outlets of Raymond Bourgine, Le Spectacle du Monde and Valeurs Actuelles. Until its heyday in the late 1970s, however, the group remained mostly unknown to the general public. Its members were focusing on the organization of conferences to influence the elites, with cercles de réflexion ("thinking groups") emerging in many cities of France and even abroad: the "Cercle Pareto" in Sciences Po Paris, "Galillée" in Lyon, "Critique Réaliste" in Nantes, "Jean Médecin" in Nice, "Bertrand Russel" in Toulon, "Pythéas" in Marseille, "Erwin-de-Steinbach" and "Wimpfeling" in Strasbourg, "Stamkunde" in Lilles, "Henry de Montherland" in Bordeaux, "Erasme" in Brussels, and "Villebois-Mareuil" in Johannesburg.

In September 1973, the magazine Éléments, which had been serving as the internal bulletin of GRECE until then, began its public circulation as the general public showcase of the think tank. Frustrated with GRECE's long-term meta-political strategy, several members including Jean-Yves Le Gallou and Yvan Blot established with Henry de Lesquen a group named Club de l'Horloge in 1974 to serve as an elite think tank seeking to adopt a more direct strategy, "entryism", that is the infiltration of political parties and senior public offices. Several of them joined mainstream right-ring parties like the Rally for the Republic and the Union for French Democracy.