Recent EU social science research programmes have stressed the importance of the "user". Using a study of EU funded social science projects, the article develops a typology of the different forms of user involvement. A case study of a "cluster" of research projects shows that user involvement within projects has significant national variations. This new user involvement could be taken as exemplifying a shift from "Mode 1" to "Mode 2" knowledge production, but this would be exaggerated. Users remain distinct from researchers, the pressure for involvement came from the European Commission and not the users. User involvement can best be understood as an attempt to strengthen the relationship between academic research and civil society through networks rather than through market relations--a move that is now being rolled back by new developments in EU research policy.