Purpose –The study’s purpose was to examine the faculty-driven organization’s design and development that supports faculty research needs, track the emergence of the community of practice (CoP) and provide greater insight into continued organizational design iterations.

Design/methodology/approach – In this longitudinal design case study, the authors employed different methods to collect and analyze archival, quantitative and qualitative data to capture the phenomenon’s complexity.

Findings – The findings challenge the assumption that only formal organizational structures and top-down management approaches stimulate research and build research capacity in universities and propose a new sustainable and agile informal organizational structure and strategies to respond to faculty members’ various research needs.

Research limitations/implications – Future research is needed to investigate the tension between the individual researchers’ and organizational needs, formal and informal organizational structures in universities, and the creation of a culture that would stimulate research.

Practical implications – Some of the recommended strategies and activities already have been implemented by the Research Consortium Committee (RCC), and faculty engagement in the RCC initiatives has increased. The practical implications are not limited to a College of Education (COE) context. The findings and the developed strategies could apply to many universities and colleges that desire to support their researchers. The research development officers, university administration and policymakers can consider the results of the present study to develop a comprehensive framework for research capacity and infrastructure building from not only organizational but individual perspectives.

Originality/value –This study provides one of the rare empirical investigations of the design, development, and evolution of researchers’ needs-driven informal organization in a higher education (HE) setting.