This publication is an attempt to enlarge the perspectives of Contemporary European Border Studies both temporally and epistemologically. Border studies in Europe are indeed still largely focused on the analysis of cross-border cooperation and its relationship with the process of European Integration after the Second World War. What is generally missing is a long-term historical perspective and the consideration that circulation and networks can also be built across borders because there is a community of ideas or a shared good to defend : a common scientific culture, health, environment.