HURRBIS is an informal network created in 2006, by the 3 French Observatories of Urban Hydrology: OPUR from Paris area, OTHU from Lyon and ONEVU from Nantes. OPUR, OTHU and ONEVU work mostly on the same topic: they analyse the whole urban water cycle, from the atmosphere to the ground including the in-between steps as water infrastructures and aquatic environment (groundwater and water courses). Part of their budget comes from local authorities, so researchers have to negotiate their research topics considering local management concerns about storm water and wet weather flows. Researches mainly focus on pollutants in urban areas and their impact on the aquatic environment. From an organisational point of view, HURRBIS is a non structural organisation to enhance relations between researchers working on different sites. It aims to become a special place for researchers and city engineers to share their needs and work on solutions to improve urban water management. It is supposed to favour communication between both parts and help to link scientific questions to management issues. Scientifically, the HURRBIS network is an opportunity for the observatories to put in common their local studies and to share methods, data and outcomes. All in all, HURRBIS questions the innovation process considering governance changes: how can research teams and programs help to change management practices dealing with this background? Is there a good scale to build efficient partnerships? In brief, main issues discussed in the paper are: HURRBIS as a network to link scientific issues to water management concerns An intent to share at a wider scale local territories' data and programs A will to find the good scale for innovation policies.