The REF explained

THE REF EXPLAINED

What is the REF? The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a national assessment of the research taking place across UK universities. Every six or seven years, institutions are asked to submit examples of their best research to be assessed by panels of academics and industry experts. Each of 34 subject areas is awarded up to four stars. The process is designed to ensure that public money is spent effectively.

The framework is used by the four UK higher education funding bodies (Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland) to assess the quality of research and to inform the distribution of around £2 billion of research funding per year to UK universities.

REF is an important source of funding for universities – Southampton received over £300 million from the last exercise – and the outcomes, for individual disciplines and the University as a whole, can affect our research reputation for many years, influencing our ability to recruit staff and students, and develop partnerships with organisations in the UK and overseas.

REF is an important source of funding for universities – Southampton received over £300 million from the last exercise – and the outcomes, for individual disciplines and the University as a whole, can affect our research reputation for many years.

25%

About 25 per cent of the University’s research income is from funding resulting from the REF

5,000 PAGES

The submission runs to over 5,000 A4 pages

3,200 OUTPUTS

We returned more than 3,200 outputs and over 100 Impact Case Studies

250,000 WORDS

Our environment statements total more than 250,000 words

1,400 STAFF

We made a submission to 25 UOAs comprising over 1,400 academic staff

5 YEARS

Preparations began five years before the submission

How is the REF carried out? The REF looks at three areas of assessment, which together reflect the key characteristics of research excellence:

• Quality of research outputs (60 per cent of the assessment)

• Impact of research – its effect on, change, or benefit to the economy, society, policy, culture and quality of life (25 per cent of the assessment)

• Research environment – an institution’s research strategy and objectives, equipment and facilities, national and international collaboration, awards, honours and prizes, and research metrics such as income and doctoral degrees awarded (15 per cent of the assessment)

Each university is invited to make an institutional submission, or return, to REF, which is broken down into 34 disciplinary units known as Units of Assessment (UOAs). These submissions are assessed by an expert panel in each UOA.

There are also four overarching ‘main panels’ to reflect the following subject areas:

• Panel A: Medicine, health and life sciences

• Panel B: Physical sciences, engineering and mathematics

• Panel C: Social sciences

• Panel D: Arts and humanities

These panels are supported by the Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel and the Interdisciplinary Research Advisory Panel.

How are REF submissions assessed? The research excellence of each university’s REF submission is assessed through a process of peer review undertaken by the panels comprising academics and research users from industry, business, government and other organisations.

The quality of each output (journal articles, books, performances, compositions, etc) is graded using a star system, with similar definitions for impact and the environment:

• 4* – world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour

• 3* – internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour but which falls short of the highest standards of excellence

• 2* – recognised internationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour

• 1* – recognised nationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour

• Unclassified – falls below the standard of nationally recognised work, or work which does not meet the published definition of research for the purposes of this assessment

Has anything changed since the previous REF in 2014? A major review of REF, led by Lord Nicholas Stern, was published in 2016 and resulted in several changes for REF 2021:

• All staff who have a significant responsibility for research must be included, removing the selectivity of previous exercises

• Introduction of an ‘outputs pool’ where everyone contributes at least one output and a maximum of five, rather than the four papers per person as in REF 2014. Outputs from staff who have left the University could also be included

• A broader definition of impact to emphasise public engagement and to include impact on teaching.

For further information, visit: www.ref.ac.uk