The paper analyzes the growth of relationships between universities and territories of the urban area of Lyons. Using a historical approach (from 1958 to 2009), it shows that the intensification of relations between universities and territories makes sense at the crossroad of international, national and local logics. The election of new local and academic executives, the internationalization of academic competition, and the reshufflements of local public authorities and of university policies, led academics and local elected representatives to strengthen their cooperation. The paper further shows that the contents of such cooperation gradually shifted. As they became institutionalized over time, these collaborations were partly redefined to give new faces to the links between universities and territories.