In August 2011, the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) celebrated the accolade of university title, becoming Scotland's newest university. Modelled on a federal, collegiate university based on a number of existing and geographically dispersed Further Education (FE) colleges and research institutions, the UHI has clearly abandoned the more conventional model of a single campus university in a single location. This study focuses on structural and cultural developments within the UHI arrangement. In particular, it explores the policy drive to foster such a research culture, focusing on the period from 2003 to 2009. The study identified two different types of performativity discourses that proved to be central in shaping the policy aspiration, namely a "RAE performativity discourse" and a "Further Education (FE) performativity discourse". Both discourses can be seen to have influenced the trajectory of research expansionist policy within the UHI by setting up a normative space privileging certain identities, subjectivities and associated actions at the expense of others. The study aims to contribute to wider debates on institutional policies for building research capacity in a dual sector/hybrid institutional setting.