The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the role played by universities in industrial districts, faced with a situation of change in the competitive environment. We conduct a longitudinal study of a district with serious problems of competitiveness, using techniques of Social Network Analysis. The results show how the district has changed the distribution of its relational capital. In particular we detectan increasingly importance of relationships between companies and the University, evidenced by an increase in the density of relations between them, as well as a more central role played by university.