Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
An institution prepares a REF 2029 submission documenting outputs, impact case studies and environment statements.
- Is an instance
A panel chair convenes calibration meetings to ensure consistent expert scoring across submissions.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Selecting outputs solely on the basis of journal impact factor, contrary to REF guidance.
- Not an instance
Submitting an impact case study without underpinning research evidence.
Editorial commentary
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the UK’s periodic, panel-based national exercise for assessing the quality of research produced by UK higher education institutions (HEIs). Its results determine the allocation of roughly £2 billion a year in block ‘quality-related’ (QR) research funding in England (and equivalent formula funding in the devolved nations), and function as a widely cited reputational benchmark independent of that funding role. The REF succeeded the earlier Research Assessment Exercise (RAE); the first REF was held in 2014, the second in 2021, and the next full cycle is REF 2029.
Who runs it
REF is run jointly by four UK funding bodies: Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, and the Department for the Economy Northern Ireland. HEIs make a submission per subject-based ‘Unit of Assessment’ (UOA); expert subject panels score each submission using peer review, informed by (but not driven by) citation and other quantitative indicators.
The general assessment structure
Across every REF cycle to date, each UOA submission has been judged on three elements — the quality of research outputs, the wider effects (‘impact’) of research beyond academia, and the strategy, people and infrastructure supporting research — scored on a five-point scale (4*, 3*, 2*, 1*, unclassified) and combined into an overall quality profile. What has changed between cycles is the exact name, weighting, and evidence format for each element, which is why this framework-level page deliberately does not repeat cycle-specific figures.
REF 2021 vs. REF 2029: do not conflate the two
REF 2021 (the completed, historical exercise) weighted the three elements Outputs 60%, Impact 25%, Environment 15%, with Environment evidenced through REF5a/REF5b narrative statements — see REF 2021 for the full historical detail and results. REF 2029 (the current, operative cycle, guidance still being finalised through 2026) renamed and reweighted the elements: Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding 50%, Engagement and Impact 30%, and a renamed Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) element at 20%, scored via a 60/40 split between an Institution-Level Statement and a Unit-Level Statement — see REF 2029 for that cycle’s full structure, including the decoupling of outputs from individual staff. A source or page describing ‘REF’s weighting’ without naming which cycle is describing one specific historical or current snapshot, not a fixed, permanent structure.
Why it matters for research administration
Preparing a REF submission is a multi-year institutional exercise: research offices coordinate output selection, verify eligibility (including, from REF 2029, the ‘substantive link’ test between staff and outputs), draft impact case studies with supporting evidence, and compile environment/SPRE narrative statements. REF results also feed directly into the responsible-research-assessment debate CASRAI documents elsewhere — REF’s stated move toward qualitative peer review over crude publication counts is frequently discussed alongside DORA, CoARA, and the Hong Kong Principles.
References
- Research England, REF guidance documents (ref.ac.uk).
- 2029.ref.ac.uk, REF 2029 guidance modules.
Also known as
REF · Research Excellence Framework
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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