In this paper, I analyse how university teachers, managers and students in a Cuban university engage with science and innovation targets in their daily work. These university actors are working in a hierarchical and authoritative environment. The Ministry of Education sets targets for academic performance in terms of getting involved in research projects and publishing scientific articles, which seem to be aligned with the World University Rankings. Managers turn these targets into assessment indicators and use them to systematically evaluate academics through a yearly teacher appraisal. The study is based on fieldwork conducted at the Faculty of Social Science, University of Holguin in Cuba, and explored how academics, students and managers interpreted, contested, planned and accomplished these targets in their everyday science and innovation activities. Using the anthropology of policy approach (Shore and Wright 1997), I show how, despite the challenges of getting funded, the high standards they are calling upon to meet, and the day-to-day barriers they must face, teachers get published, are involved in research projects, and organise or attend scientific events, even though those outcomes do not fit the expected metrics.