The article discusses the notion of territory in the practices of health care and research based on the experience of participative research-intervention about the work of a Street Medicine team. The practice of care analyzed is characterized by a specific mode of relationship with the users' life territories. To understand this relationship, it was necessary to broaden the discussion, reflecting the Primary Health Care in the Brazilian National Health System (SUS) and the meaning of embracing the leading role of the territory in this scenario. The methodological approach adopted implied building a research device in which the territory was the protagonist of the investigative process, leading to a reflection of the participation of the territory in participative research-intervention. At the end of this process, an approximation between caring and researching was analyzed, expanding the possibilities of understanding the role of the territory in both practices.
Territory; Street medicine; Participatory research-intervention; Primary health care