European shy, holding record for science (7)
I believe the answer is:
ecology
'science' is the definition.
(ecology is a kind of science)
'european shy holding record' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'shy' becomes 'coy' (I've seen this before).
'holding' is an insertion indicator.
'record' becomes 'log' (logging is a kind of recording).
'coy' enclosing 'log' is 'cology'.
'e'+'cology'='ECOLOGY'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for ecology that I've seen before include "Bionomics" , "Study of organisms and their surroundings" , "Branch of biology" , "Study of organisms and their environments" , "Science of the interaction of organisms and their environment" .)